Tangent Lines
by Angelwiththeblackestwings
Summary: When Gaara is ambushed after a routine mission and goes missing, the Sand and Leaf must work together to find him and bring him back before it's too late, but unfortunately for his rescue team, the circumstances of Gaara's disappearance are not entirely what they seem.
1. Chapter 1

Gaara's eye twitched as one of his two genins attempted to skip a stone across the small, winding stream. It scratched across a rock and Gaara stood up quickly, gritting his teeth and scaring the other genin so much that they fell off the rock which they had been perched on and Gaara closed his eyes in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose with the tips of his fingers.

_How did I get stuck with such idiots?_

"Sorry Lord Gaara, I just want-" The genin who had thrown the stone began to apologize, his voice stuttering over the words.

"It doesn't matter." Gaara told him, his voice monotone. He picked up his gourd and strung it across his back, fixing it in place with its strap, it felt a little heavier than normal but that was probably just because he was tired. Their mission had been to check out an old border post to see if anyone had taken advantage of it. There had been four shinobi holed up in the post and they had been taken care of by Gaara's sand, putting up a strong fight but in the end were eliminated. The documents that had remained, deciphered by the two genin, had shown Gaara that they had been planning to attack the sand later that month. The two genin carried the documents in their satchels as Gaara thought they would be safer there, he was the captain and any normal shinobi would attack him first for the information, letting the genin escape.

Gaara walked over the stream but stopped at the other side, waiting for his genin to gather their things quickly and join him. Unlike him, they did not walk on the water but jumped over it, landing on the other side halfway clumsily. They may not be the best genin but they accepted Gaara as their team leader and had the skills necessary to decipher the codes, leaving Gaara as the main fighter of the group. The sun was still high in the sky, warming the forest and creating shadows all around them. He would have let them rest longer to build up their chakra again but in order to reach the Sand by nightfall they had to get moving. Gaara had promised his siblings to be back by that night and he was already behind schedule, both the deciphering and the enemy had taken more time than he had expected. He didn't expect any trouble on the way back to the Sand village though, so he decided to let his chakra build as he walked.

The three of them began to walk towards the direction of the desert in silence; it wasn't a daunting silence but an easy one. As they walked the trees became less dense and the air became dryer, indicating their closeness to the beginning of the desert. After a few more minutes, the trees ended and the ground became sandy. Here Gaara and the two genin felt the true heat of the day and all three wished that they were back under the shade of the trees. The sun beat down onto the sand and their clothes quickly became sticky on their backs.

Gaara stopped suddenly, causing the two genin to glance at each other. He looked back the way they had come, the forest still within sight, its mass hiding cool air and creatures shuffling about. "What is it Lord Gaara?" The taller of the two genins asked, curiosity stronger than his nervousness.

"It's nothing." Gaara muttered, turning forwards again and shaking off a feeling of dread, almost a feeling of someone watching them. He only took a few steps more before stopping again, this time turning faster and spotting a flash of black disappearing in the forest. He took a few steps towards the forest, almost tempted to follow the black flash, the two genin shared apprehensive looks before following slowly, their only thought was that they were going in the opposite direction of home.

Gaara narrowed his eyes at the forest, he had definitely seen the flash of black but now it was gone and he thought for a second that it was nothing more than a bat that had risen far too early or even a large cat which were known to be common around those woods. After seeing nothing more after staring for a few seconds he turned back towards his genin, brow furrowed and eyes focused on the sand at his feet.

"LORD GAARA!" A genin shouted as he fell to the ground, covered in red and with kunai protruding from his back, warning Gaara of the approaching danger. Gaara's eyes snapped up and he raised his sand shield to protect himself, glancing round and plucking the other genin assigned to him from the ground and behind the shield with a coil of his sand. That genin let out what could only be described as a shriek but stopped as he realised that Gaara was protecting him and not attacking him. Kunai hit the other side of the sand wall in multitude and Gaara felt his forehead furrow as he puzzled out the enemy's motives.

_Why are they hitting something which cannot be broken by kunai?_

He looked down at the genin who had shouted a warning, bleeding and most likely dead, his last words used to warn Gaara. The other stood shaking at one end of the dome scared by both the sudden darkness and the sight of the other ninja they were faced with. The mission was meant to be routine, a simple border patrol and he had definitely not expected these alien shinobi to appear in their masses. Even a full team of jounin would most likely be defeated by these shinobi, all appearing fierce and wore faces of experience and bloody fights. Looking at the trembling genin, Gaara realised that he was pretty much alone to fight off shinobi who all appeared ferocious in their own right. More Kunai hit the sand wall and Gaara took a step back, closing his right eye and covering it with his hand. The sand outside the wall began to shift, forming a small eyeball and his optic nerve connected, allowing him to look outside the domed wall. He could now see that the shinobi were not of any village, or if they were, their forehead protectors were hidden. He assumed that they were rogue shinobi looking for a good bounty, and Gaara was that bounty, the Shukaku inside of him being worth a great deal to the shady dealers of the shinobi world. His third eye glanced round the shinobi as Gaara reopened his right eye and removed his hand. The shinobi all carried weapons of sorts, some with simple kunai and others with more elaborate looking ones, all looking more than capable of handling them.

He noticed one of the shinobi make a hand sign and his eyes widened as the mass of kunai exploded, ripping the sand apart and throwing Gaara and the genin to the ground. Gaara's sand armour cracked from the blast and he could tell instantly that the genin hadn't made it, his body twisted in some unnatural form and his face bloody. Now that both of his genin were dead, Gaara stood alone against the rabble, moving his cool blue eyes from face to face. Many of them were smirking, as if knowing something that Gaara didn't. They could see his cracked sand armour and were already contemplating their success. Gaara narrowed his eyes, knowing he could only pretend to be strong; his chakra was running low due to the earlier scuffle, not to mention the intense amount of chakra he had used in this fight for both his sand armour and the domed wall which had been so easily demolished. He had a feeling that they were no ordinary explosives that had been used; any normal paper bomb wouldn't have been able to penetrate his sand shield. Nothing could, except for the few times when it had, such as during his chuunin exams with Sasuke's chidori or when it had been soaked in water another time. His ultimate shield was not as ultimate as it used to be, being invincible was a faint memory for Gaara and he would rarely return from a mission without some form of an injury. He was however always fascinated by the wounds and how they would create a scab to protect themselves, the body's own shield.

"What do you want?" He asked, attempting to appear stronger than he felt. His eyes were narrowed and his fists were clenched, sand pulsing at his feet. A few shinobi took a step or two back, convinced by his act while another, scarred and mean, laughed.

"We want the power of the shukaku, and the nice little bounty on your head, Gaara of the Sand." He pointed a katana at Gaara; its handle was worn and frayed. The blade had been recently sharpened and Gaara had no doubt many a person's blood had been spilt on the blade, despite how shiny it appeared. "And we know exactly how to get it."

Gaara felt his eyes widen the slightest bit, surprised at his answer. For a brief moment his only thought was _not again _but that quickly passed and changed into annoyance. He was tired of the bounty hunters and shinobi who wanted to test their strength against the Sand's ultimate weapon, they seemed to forget that he was human, although, just as Gaara had recently considered himself as such, he doubted the shinobi considered him as being human, rather a monster's vessel. He was growing tired of being a jinchuriki and seeing the looks of terror from his people every time he appeared unhappy. He focused his attention back on to the man. "And how do you-"

Gaara stopped, and glanced down at the ground, he had felt some sort of disturbance beneath his feet. He took a step back, releasing the third eye and keeping his attention focused on the dirt below his feet. A hand broke out of the earth with both speed and accuracy, locating Gaara's ankle and gripping it tightly. Immediately Gaara felt weaker, realising that the hand was stealing the little chakra that he had left. With his attention focused on removing his leg from his assailant's grip he ignored the other shinobi, attempting to wretch it from his assailant's hand. He couldn't free his ankle from its iron grip and began to feel weak. After a few painful seconds, Gaara fell to his knees, gasping for breath and feeling weaker than he ever had in his life. Shukaku began to grumble inside of him and Gaara attempted to shut him out, closing his eyes hard and forcing Shukaku back far behind the bars of his cage. Feeling weaker still, He glanced up at the scarred man, falling forwards as his strength was drained from him. He stretched his hand out over the sand desperately, trying to make it move but it wouldn't, not responding in the slightest to his severely depleted chakra.

"You see, Jerso here has a special jutsu. Not only can he suck the chakra from his target, he can also steal their life energy but don't worry, you won't die, not yet, after all we have plans for y-" The scarred man was shoved to the side by a flash of white, and Gaara felt his eyes widen slightly as another white flash knocked another shinobi flying. Suddenly more flashes of white light were attacking the men, moving so quickly that it didn't seem possible. The hand around his ankle disappeared but by then Gaara's consciousness was fading and he could barely see through his eyes at the unfolding battle.

"Kankuro, Temari... "He muttered, shutting his eyes and blocking out the now raging battle between the flashes of white and the rogue shinobi. His ears kept working for a few seconds longer however and he could hear the sound of metal clashing with metal and the sound of a lightning style jutsu meeting some sort of earth style. A cry of pain came from somewhere on his right and he tried to open his heavy eyelids but they refused to cooperate, taking his sight and the rest of his consciousness with them.


	2. Chapter 2

Night came quickly in the Sand Village, the skies turned dark blue and then black, lit by thousands of gleaming stars. Gaara had still not returned. The oldest sand sibling paced somewhat anxiously by the entrance to Sunagakure while the shinobi guarding the entrance looked at her with some form of concern. By the time midnight came, there was a distinct tread line from the sandals of the kunoichi in the sand. One of the shinobi in charge of the entrance made his way from his post to where the blonde haired female still paced, looking more and more worried as the night grew darker and the temperature began to drop.

"Lady Temari, perhaps it would be better if you waited inside the village," The middle aged shinobi suggested, keeping his voice low and soothing, jolting Temari out of her thoughts and causing her to swing round and face him. "If we see Lord Gaara approach, we will send word to you immediately, there is no sense in you waiting in the cold; you should catch up on your rest."

Temari bit her lip, glancing towards the desert through the corner of her eyes, looking for Gaara in the distance before nodding. "Alright, send word to me immediately when he arrives."

After dismissing the shinobi Temari began to walk back towards the home she shared with her brothers. The sand village was dark, lit by only a few strategically placed streetlamps. Many lights were off in the houses she passed, which, due to how late it was, was more than understandable. The cool air of the night began to bother Temari and she picked up the pace a little more, nodding as another shinobi gave her a quick bow of respect.

The lights were still on in her home, Kankuro had more than likely stayed up working on a puppet as a guise for waiting for Gaara to return. Temari pushed open the door quietly and locked it behind her, taking her shoes off as she did so. Then after brushing a few grains of sand from her feet she walked into the main room of the house, eyes looking around for her brother. Unable to spot him she moved through the house, checking his room first. Finding it empty she closed the door softly, wondering briefly if he was even home.

"Kankuro?" She called, glancing down the hallway. Before she had even received an answer she had begun to walk towards his puppet workshop, her bare feet silent on the wooden floor.

"In here." The reply came, confirming her suspicions as she pushed open the door to his workshop. To her the room looked like absolute chaos, with random wooden body parts either hanging up or covering every available surface. Tools were littered about and Temari had to step over what she assumed was some sort of torso to approach Kankuro who if asked about the state of the room, would claim that everything was in the place it should be.

Among the puppets was Kankuro, he'd taken off both his face paint and his forehead protector, letting his shaggy brown hair hang loose over his ears. He appeared to be concentrating on some sort of leg, which twitched every so often. Temari scrunched up her nose at the sight. _His puppets give me the creeps sometimes. _She thought to herself, not wanting to interrupt his concentration as the leg moved again.

After a few seconds Kankuro looked up at her and almost instantly knew what was bothering her. "Gaara isn't back yet is he?"

"No."

Kankuro smiled, turning back to his puppet. "Relax Temari; he isn't that bratty little psychopath anymore. Him and his team probably just got caught in a sand storm and had to wait it out, even Gaara would struggle in one of those. He's just fine, probably gritting his teeth at one of the genin or feeling sheepish at how late he is."

Temari sighed, relaxing slightly as she perched on the edge of a bench taken up by what looked like more wooden body parts. "I guess you're right but it's not him losing his temper I'm worried about, it's his safety. I mean look at how many times he's been targeted not just by people inside the village but by other, rogue shinobi. I just worry that he's gotten himself injured or - "She stopped there, not wanting to explore her fears further.

Even Kankuro looked worried for a few seconds before he brightened up. "I believe in Gaara to stay alive, after all that Naruto kid really inspired him to try to be accepted by everyone and there's no way Gaara would throw all his hard work away by dying now."

There was a silence between the two siblings as Kankuro continued fiddling with the puppet leg, sticking his tongue out as his concentration intensified. Temari watched as the leg continued to twitch and move as it was altered. It appeared to be a part of a salamander shaped puppet which was currently residing in the centre of the room, looking lopsided without one of its legs.

The silence seemed to stretch for a long while, broken eventually by Kankuro asking Temari to had him another screwdriver and then after that a small hammer. It continued like this until the old clock in their hallway chimed twice and the two siblings were beginning to droop. Kankuro set down his screwdriver and sat back in his chair, stretching his arms into the air and yawning, a few of his bones cracking in the process. Temari also yawned but hers was quieter and her mouth was covered by her hand. In silent agreement they both stood up, sidestepping over puppet parts and exiting the room. Temari waited as Kankuro extinguished the light and left the workshop in darkness, sliding the door shut softly and turning to his sister who looked at him expectantly.

"He'll be back in the morning, I just know he will."

Temari opened her eyes blearily as the first few rays of morning light hit her face. At first she felt exhausted and completely at peace but then she remembered that one of her brothers hadn't yet returned from his mission. It was then that she bolted up, completely awake and with a sense of dread in her heart. She pulled on her clothes and left her room quickly, sliding the door closed behind her. Her bare feet padded down the hall, pace quickening as she approached the kitchen. Part of her expected to see Gaara sitting at the table eating some steamed rice or broiled fish with Kankuro but instead Kankuro sat alone, his rice still steaming but seemingly untouched.

"He's still not back is he?" Temari asked, hoping she wouldn't get the answer she knew would come. She sat down and began to eat slowly; taking the extra bowl of rice that was sitting in the centre of the table, prepared by Kankuro not long before.

"No." Kankuro's tone was blunt and lifeless, echoing the tone that Temari had used the night before. He picked at his rice, managing to consume half of it before he pushed it away. Unlike last night, his face paint had been applied and his forehead protector was on the table, he was ready to leave to go find Gaara.

Temari spent more time looking at her rice than she did eating it but like Kankuro managed half a bowl before she too pushed it away. She stood up silently and lifted all the dishes off the table, dumping them into the sink after scraping out the leftovers. She grabbed her forehead protector and tied it around her neck before going to fetch her sandals. Kankuro also stood up and pulled his forehead protector over his head, covering his ears and his shaggy hair. Together the siblings put on their sandals and while Temari fastened her fan to her back, Kankuro pulled his two puppets onto his. Soon he would finish his third and would carry all three in a scroll instead but for now he carried the two without the scroll.

When they were both ready Temari unlocked the door and they both stepped out, locking it behind them. Their first stop would be the front gate of Sunagakure to check to see if Gaara had in fact arrived but had decided to bypass meeting with his siblings to give in his mission report. They walked in silence once more towards the gate, passing the early risers and school children heading to the academy, the stores were already open but many were still putting out their wares and some were chatting to passersby or calling out orders to their employees. The two siblings would usually have been heading towards the academy to check in with how things were going as they had previously taught there for a brief time while new teachers were being introduced to the new teaching methods but today they had other things on their mind.

As they approached both felt themselves staring into the horizon, each hoping to spy Gaara and laugh off their worry as foolishness. The horizon stayed empty. The closer they got to the entrance the more their nerves intensified. When they reached the entrance they approached the squad leader. He saw them coming and made his way over to them.

"Has Gaara-?" Temari started, speaking before Kankuro.

The squad leader raised his hand to stop her from speaking. "I'm sorry Lady Temari, Lord Kankuro, he hasn't returned yet. I wouldn't worry though, it's still early."

"Thanks anyway." Kankuro said, turning back towards the centre of Sunagakure. Temari spent a few seconds more looking out into the desert before turning to follow her brother. Now they would head to the administration building to meet with the jounin council and ask their permission to go out and find Gaara. More than likely the council would dismiss it as Gaara simply being late but the two siblings, without needing to say anything to each other both thought the same thing. They realised it was most probably family intuition that plagued them both, the knowledge that Gaara wasn't late, Gaara was in trouble.

The room in which the council of jounin were located was in the administration building in the centre of Sunagakure and that was where the sand siblings were now located. Their concerns didn't seem to reach the council and their fears were being downplayed.

"You two need to lighten up, Gaara is just late." One of the jounin told them, sighing at their impatience. The two siblings looked at each other and both looked like they were about to argue.

"Kankuro, Temari, Gaara is fine; your worry will come to nothing." Baki told them, putting his hands on their shoulders as if to console them. If he was honest with himself, he shared the siblings' worry but it wasn't as intense as theirs.

Temari glared around the room, making the jounin shift uneasily, each one around the table knew what Gaara meant to the siblings but none of them were willing to waste any manpower on someone which many of them believed would bring about the destruction of the Sand. There was that reason and the fact that he was only a day late, it wasn't unusual that missions took longer than expected but the two chuunin in front of them still didn't appear to understand it. Some jounin doubted their promotion to chuunin but were even unhappier with Gaara's progression, there was talk of him reaching jounin within a few months and perhaps even following his father's footsteps to become Kazekage. They feared that giving Gaara such power would bring the Sand to its knees and would be perfectly happy if Gaara didn't come back.

The jounin council looked at each other, and then one stood up. "I think you two should leave and continue with your duties. Your concern is nothing but pointless worry."

There was a knock on the door and it opened, revealing a haggard looking jounin who hesitated for a moment in the doorway after seeing Kankuro and Temari. He seemed to gather himself before turning to the council, while still watching the siblings from the corner of his eyes. The looks he gave them made the two uneasy and they took a step forwards without realising.

"What is it?" One of the council asked, looking from the siblings to the jounin. "Was you mission successful?"

"Yes, the mission was completed. I came to inform you of a different matter though." The jounin informed them, shuffling from one foot to the other.

"Oh?"

"On our return journey across the desert we discovered the bodies of multiple rogue shinobi," He paused, glancing at the two siblings again. "And the bodies of the two genin assigned to Gaara."


	3. Chapter 3

There was a few moments of shocked silence as the people in the room absorbed what the jounin had told them. Temari's eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly while Kankuro took a step forwards, eyes narrowing at the jounin.

"Was Gaara...?" Temari tailed off, almost not wanting to know the answer to the question she hadn't actually asked. She was shaking slightly and her fists were balled up by her sides.

"We didn't see his body but there were a lot of footsteps leaving the scene, it looked like a large fight. The sand was red with blood, it was almost sickening." The jounin told her, his voice low. He avoided the siblings' eyes and instead focused on a spot on the wall in front of him.

"Did Gaara kill-" One of the jounin council began to speak, his gravelly voice filled with suspicion, but was interrupted by the jounin speaking again.

"Not that I or my teammates could tell, the first genin was killed by kunai and the other had burns, consistent with a special type of paper bomb which appears to have exploded near him. The rogue shinobi though, I can't figure out how they were killed. It almost seems like they either turned on one another or another group arrived, although there are no tracks to show that. Although some of their injuries are consistent with blunt force, much like Gaara's sand had struck them and others had crushed limbs." The jounin explained to them.

"So Gaara is," Temari hesitated, glancing to Kankuro and swallowing, her balled fists beginning to shake along with the rest of her body. "Missing?"

"It appears so." The jounin responded; finally bring his eyes to meet the siblings' worried faces. "There are no single tracks leading to or from the site. Only one large set of tracks to and from the site and one set of three approaching which was confirmed as Gaara and his genin."

"So we were right to be worried!"Kankuro accused the council, taking another step forwards. His eyes were narrowed in distress and anger at the council. "Gaara really was in danger."

"We need to take a team out immediately!" Temari insisted, her voice shaking. "We need to find Gaara; we need to find my brother!"

"The council understands your worry Lady Temari but we simply don't have the manpower at the moment with the trouble at our Western border. We can send a message to the Leaf for assistance but until they reply we can't do much else." One of the council told them, looking annoyed, as if Gaara's status was a personal annoyance to him.

"Then what are you waiting for?!"

"We always get the boring jobs." Kotetsu mumbled, laying his face on the table, his nose squished against the wood.

"Take some pride in your work; at least we aren't getting hit by flying chairs or getting beaten up by overgrown birds." Izumo scolded, leaning back in his chair, feet on the wooden table. He yawned and stretched his arms back, bones in his back cracking noisily.

The two were in the Hidden Leaf's aviary, the Leaf was short staffed and they'd been let off their jobs as Hokage's assistants to look after the birds for the time being until the other shinobi in charge of the aviary returned from hospital after having caught a bad cold that scared the birds, or at least that was what the two had been told. More than likely the shinobi in charge of looking after the birds had had a fun night drinking.

There was a distant screeching of a hawk and Kotetsu raised his head, rubbing his numb nose and blinking sleepily. "Think that's for us?"

"We'll just have to wait and see" Izumo answered, glancing towards the open end of the aviary and squinting against the blue sky for the bird. He couldn't yet see it and he sighed, he didn't necessarily like birds.

The screeching came again; closer now and Izumo removed his feet from the table top and stood up, walking towards the open end of the aviary. He spotted the bird swooping down towards him, settling itself on the rail on the aviary's balcony. Izumo approached it slowly, looking for the marking telling him which village it had been sent from. The symbol of the Sand Village was displayed on the hawk's chest, attached to the harness it wore. Izumo reached out to remove the harness but was stopped by the hawk turning to nip him. He yanked his hand back and gave a sheepish look to Kotetsu.

"You try."

"I don't like birds." Kotetsu mumbled his forehead now on the table again. He shuddered at the memory of the last mission he had had involving birds. The damn ostrich was still wandering about somewhere.

Izumo glared at his partner before turning back to the hawk. He stretched his hand out again and once more the bird nipped at it flapping its wings at him. He gritted his teeth and tried again, moving quickly and grabbing the message before the bird could react. It responded to his victory by flapping its wings and screeching again, causing Izumo to retreat quickly back to Kotetsu. The bird eyed the two of them for a few moments before pecking at seeds in the bird feeder.

"Release" Izumo commanded, creating the ram seal with his hands. The seal released obediently and Kotetsu leaned over to get a better look. Izumo unrolled the message and skimmed through it, Kotetsu looking over his shoulder.

"Emergency message from the Sand... incident in the desert... request help of the Leaf... Gaara of the Sand missing." Izumo looked up at Kotetsu. "This is bad; we need to get this to Lady Tsunade right away."

"Right." Kotetsu agreed. "I'll go, you watch the birds."

"Why do I gotta...?" Izumo trailed off as Kotetsu vanished down the aviary stairs. The hawk screeched again and Izumo backed up further, gritting his teeth and wishing he was somewhere else.

Kotetsu arrived in front of the Hokage's office and knocked on the door, jumping from foot to foot impatiently.

"Enter"

"Lady Tsunade, emergency report from the Sand!" Kotetsu announced, pushing the door open and entering quickly

"What?" Tsunade looked up from her paperwork and seeing the letter in Kotetsu's hand, held her own hand out to receive it. Kotetsu handed the letter over to Tsunade and she read it quickly, scanning over the words with her brow furrowed, worry appearing on her face.

"This isn't good." Tsunade mumbled, biting her thumb as she usually did when she was worried or focused. She glanced up at the chuunin in front of her and made up her mind immediately. "Kotetsu!"

Kotetsu immediately straightened up, her tone making him jump to attention. "Yes, Lady Tsunade?"

"Fetch Kakashi Hatake immediately. Go!" Her tone was urgent and her orders clear. Kakashi was the only free jounin she had that would be suitable to work with the Sand in something like this. Kotetsu nodded and left the room, moving fast to find Kakashi.

A few minutes later Kakashi knocked on the door and entered silently. "You wanted to see me?"

Tsunade looked up from the letter and nodded. "I have an A ranked mission for you. Gaara of the sand was abducted on his return from a mission by a large group of rogue shinobi. I need you to take a team to find and retrieve him."

"Gaara was... abducted?" The thought of someone abducting Gaara was a strange one and it took Kakashi a few moments to wrap his head around the idea.

"Yes. Here is a list of the shinobi available to take." Tsunade handed over the two sheets of paper, letting Kakashi scan over it while she continued to outline the mission details. "His genin were found near the edge of the desert along with the bodies of a few of the rogue ninja, there were footsteps leading to the site and a few leading away however the trail was lost shortly after it reached the forest. You'll be working along with a team of Sand shinobi, both of Gaara's siblings and his student. The rogue ninja are believed to be heading to one of the many bounty exchange points to get rid of Gaara."

"Has anyone considered the possibility that Gaara escaped? After all, he's no pushover, even I would be apprehensive about going up against him." Kakashi looked up from the documents he held as he spoke, already having decided on two of the three members of his team.

"That is a possibility, although he hasn't arrived at the Sand village and there are no single footsteps leaving the scene anywhere so if Gaara is alive then he's most likely unconscious. Although, that is what worries me, Gaara's hold on the Shukaku isn't as strong as Naruto's is and I fear that Shukaku may take over Gaara again." Tsunade told him, turning to stare out the window at the Leaf village, wishing that Naruto was still in the Leaf, after all, Gaara and Naruto were friends and she had no doubt that Naruto would be more than willing to help find Gaara. In fact, he'd probably be demanding to be sent on the mission and threatening to kick the crap out of anyone who dared hurt Gaara.

Kakashi nodded and decided on his last member. He set the two sheets of paper on the Hokage's desk, the names he had chosen circled. Tsunade turned again and lifted the paper up; she glanced through it and nodded at the first choice but then frowned slightly at the last two choices.

"Are you sure you want these three? You only have one ninja with scouting abilities, excluding yourself." Tsunade asked, raising her eyes from the paper to meet Kakashi's, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, I have faith in these three to carry out the mission successfully." Kakashi informed her, his expression nonchalant.

"Alright, I'll send for them, you'll leave in fifteen minutes. Do not be late, Kakashi." Tsunade warned him, narrowing her eyes. Kakashi smiled well naturedly and left the room in a cloud of smoke. Leaving Tsunade to summon the three ninja he had chosen.

Fifteen minutes later Kakashi appeared at the main gate of Konohagakure and looked down at the three shinobi he had chosen. The first gave him a smile and thumbs up, the next looked bored out of his mind, the first approved chuunin of the group and the second chuunin had his arms folded and was looking at the first genin with some form of annoyance.

"So, Kakashi-sensei, Gaara's been kidnapped right? And we gotta find him before he dies, if he isn't already." The chuunin's face was expressionless and Kakashi barely heard the next words that came from his mouth. "What a drag."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Yes, we'll be working alongside Kankuro, Temari and Matsuri, Gaara's student. They're the only three the Sand can spare, apparently there's trouble on their western border and they need the majority of their forces to tend to it as well as some of ours."

"Do not worry Kakashi-sensei, we will find Gaara and bring him home! After all, Gaara is a formidable opponent; he would not allow himself to be defeated by some rogue ninja." The first genin smiled widely again, giving another thumbs up towards the bored looking chuunin.

"We still have to find him first and with the amount of time that's already been wasted it will be difficult. Kakashi-sensei, when do we meet with the Sand ninja?" The third said, rolling his eyes at the over eager genin next to him.

"We meet them in the Land of Rivers, tomorrow at noon. So we'd better get moving." Kakashi told the three of them.

"All right. So there'll be seven of us in total? I'll try and devise a strategy on our way there."

"I'll use the byakugan to keep an eye out for Gaara just in case."

Kakashi nodded, creating four hand signs and biting his finger, summoning all of his eight ninja hounds. They appeared in their usual formation, a cloud of smoke announcing their arrival.

"Hey, Kakashi." The smallest greeted from its position on the top of the largest dog's head.

"No time to chat, I have a mission. I need you to search for Gaara and report back to me if you find him. Check around bounty trading points and report back to me if you find him. You remember his scent?" Kakashi wrapped his finger in a bandage and waited for a reply.

"Yeah, we know it. So long." The eight of the hounds disappeared leaving the four shinobi to set off in the direction of the Land of Rivers.


	4. Chapter 4

Gaara's eyes snapped open, cool air brushed past his cheek in a gentle breeze and for a few seconds it was pitch black. After his eyes had adjusted to the low light he began to pay attention to his surroundings. He noticed a rough stone wall of a cave and a jagged roof above him. There was the flickering of a fire to his right, the flames lighting the cave subtly, creating an effect of dancing light. He attempted to sit up groggily, taking his time to keep dizziness at bay, head still spinning and his stomach feeling sick, the dizziness overcame him and he lay down again, waiting for it to pass. He could see that the cave was large, its mouth seeming to peer down into a valley.

They were above ground level and he could see trees outside the entrance along with large boulders, they seemed to give some sort of cover for the cave, making it hard to see from the outside. Looking round the cave he couldn't spot anyone else and, as soon as the dizziness passed, he sat up slowly and blinked as a blanket fell off, as if someone had been looking after him. Gaara glanced around and his eyes and nose honed in on some food left beside him, consisting of an apple, a small, thick loaf of bread and a fish, all looking fresh. There was a container of what he assumed was water. Unable to stop himself he grabbed the loaf of bread and tore a piece off, swallowing it almost whole and taking another chunk as his stomach growled at him. He set the last half of the bread down and ate the fish, it was still warm, indicating it had recently been cooked and he ate it greedily, chugging down the container of water in the process. While finishing the last half of the bread he took a closer look around the cave, taking everything in that he could.

He had been lying on the smooth, rock floor and had been covered with a woollen blanket; his head had been propped up by his own scarf. He picked up the white, slightly dirtied scarf and wrapped it around his body, fixing it so it hung loosely from his right shoulder. He brushed the majority of the dirt off it, but there were a few stains that wouldn't brush off, blood for example was dotted over it, standing out against the white material. He swung his head slowly around, his eyes searching for his gourd, if it was even there. After a few seconds however he managed to spy his gourd of sand leaning on the wall behind him, unbroken despite the earlier fight and filled with sand, even though Gaara recalled that it had been empty before he had lost consciousness. He took note of the missing kunai from his pocket but soon spotted them on the ground beside the gourd, piled up neatly.

He popped the last piece of the bread into his mouth and stood up, picking up the apple as he did. His legs were weaker than he thought and he stumbled forwards and hit the wall, throwing his hand out to stop his fall and leaning against the stone for support as his legs shook. The cool wall woke him up a bit further and he pushed off the wall and made his way shakily towards the mouth of the cave. Upon reaching the mouth of the cave he glanced at the fire, the flames were high and warm, and the wood looked like it had been added to the fire recently. He found himself wondering where the group of white haired shinobi who had appeared just before he lost consciousness had gone and where exactly he was. Gaara felt himself sway and he leant against the wall again, legs wobbling. His vision blurred and he squeezed his eyes shut. When he reopened them, his vision was clear and he let out a shaky breath.

"You shouldn't be standing, you'll just fall over." A soft voice scolded from somewhere in front of him. Scrunching up his eyes he looked around, attempting to spot the owner of the voice. He couldn't see anyone on the ground in front of beside him and he looked up almost in desperation at the stars. He spotted a silhouette crouched on top of a large boulder a few metres in front of him, almost mistaking it for a shadow at first. Although the silhouette looked feminine, Gaara couldn't confirm anything else about them.

"Who are you?" He asked, surprised at how weak his voice sounded in the cool night. The silhouette looked up at the sky, silent for a few moments before responding.

"I'm a wandering shinobi, no one in particular." The silhouette told him, the voice was definitely female. Gaara felt a wave of dizziness rise up and he swayed again and began to fall forwards towards the ground and this time there was no wall to catch himself on so he threw his arms out in front of himself to catch his fall while still trying to steady himself. A hand met his shoulder as he fell and pushed him back up slowly, he almost expected it to leave his shoulder but it stayed as the woman stared at him, her face lit by the fire. Her eyes were unnaturally green, boring into his own and they made his skin crawl slightly. "You need to sit down now Gaara." She told him forcefully, narrowing her eyes.

Gaara's head snapped up, making his vision blur and his head spin. For a brief second he forgot what he was going to say but it came back to him quickly. "How do you know-?"

"You are a targeted Sand shinobi carrying a heavy gourd of sand. It wasn't particularly hard to figure out." The reply came, sounding both soft and irked at the same time. Her brow was furrowed and her mouth was set in a hard line. In the light of the fire Gaara could make out more of her features and even someone like him who didn't particularly pay attention to exteriors could see how beautiful she was. He supposed she'd be the type of woman that men would fall in love with by only glancing at her. It then occurred to him that she had carried his gourd, and maybe even him while the white haired shinobi had fought off his attackers before.

"I...guess." He managed to reply, glancing down at his feet and noticing how they seemed to move of their own accord, and then it appeared he had more than two of them and he shut his eyes again. He allowed himself to be moved gently into a sitting position and with hardly any realisation he bit into the apple that he had managed to grip onto despite his faulty concept of up. "The genin I was with... are they..."

"Dead" Her reply was blunt but not uncivil, if anything it had a hint of annoyance, not directed at Gaara but the shinobi herself.

"I see." Gaara muttered, putting his head in his hands, did his siblings know what had become of him? Had they discovered the bodies of the genin yet? Were they looking for him now and fearing the worst? Gaara calmed his thoughts, it was dark, so he doubted his siblings would be doing anything other than sleeping at this point, although, they genuinely seemed to care for him and he wondered if they were awake, worrying about him.

The woman raised her eyebrows at him, looking torn between concern and keeping a cool, unemotional exterior. She, like the other ninja who had originally attacked him, wore no forehead protector but had the air of a seasoned shinobi and despite her seemingly friendly manner; Gaara knew he couldn't trust her. He glanced at her, noting two katanas strapped to her back and he had no doubt that she could use them well. For a moment he contemplated running but knew that it was pointless, he had already shown her that he barely had the strength to stand and he wondered if she planned to kill him and claim the bounty the others had spoken of.

"If I had wanted you dead then you would not be awake right now." She told him, as if reading his thoughts, he was shocked for a brief second before he realised it was his expression that had given him away and the attempted tension in his body which didn't appear to be working out.

"What about the bounty on my head?" Gaara asked, his suspicion undying. Although his gourd was close as were his kunai, he barely had the energy to move, and his chakra was doing little more than keeping him sitting upright, he couldn't fight, he could barely even move, his life was entrusted to this stranger who may or may not be an enemy. Even if he had some strength in his body, he highly doubted his odds against this female shinobi, she looked harmless but he'd already seen how fast she'd moved and had an idea of how strong she was.

"You've been asleep for two full days, I had plenty of time." She told him, moving gracefully to take a seat on the other side of the fire. She added a log to the flames and they grew suddenly before lulling again. She took a drink from a carton similar to his own and sat still, watching him with her emerald eyes. She seemed to ponder something inside her head before deciding to speak again. "Besides, I don't want, or need, the money. You should get some more rest, before you fall into the fire."

Gaara blinked, only now realising how far from the present he had been, her words forcing him back to the real world from his own. His face was warm, almost burning, from the flames which were dangerously close to his face, licking the air beside his nose. It appeared that he had slowly been drifting forward, his weary body slouching. He jolted back and ended up losing what little balance he had and lying on the ground with a grunt. There was a quickly stifled, pretty laugh from the other side of the warm fire and Gaara felt his eyes narrow and his mouth take on a hard line from his new position on the ground. He would have argued venomously with her laugh if he had the energy but he simply felt too tired to move his lips. Instead he allowed the fire to warm his body and closed his eyes again, realising once more how heavy his eyelids seemed to be. Yet again he found himself listening to the world around him, which for a few minutes was silent, save for the fire crackling beside his ear and the wind blowing through the trees outside of the cave.

Then he heard the shinobi stand and walk over to his side of the fire, pausing for a few seconds before making her way towards the inside of the cave where he had been lying previously. She stayed there for a few minutes and Gaara heard the clinking of his carton as she picked it up and made her way back towards him. She dropped the blanket of his softly and knelt down beside him. For a moment Gaara though that she was going to tuck him in but she simply sighed, muttering something incoherent before moving away out the mouth of the cave. Gaara assumed that she would take the same position she had earlier, sitting on the boulder outside of the cave, acting almost as a sentry as he slept. More than likely she was waiting for the other shinobi to arrive so she could sleep.

As the night became silent again, Gaara's thoughts drifted again towards his siblings and he hope that they were alright and hadn't done anything foolish in an attempt to find him. As he began to lose consciousness he found himself wondering where exactly he was, and how much longer it would be until he could move by himself and use any of his ninjutsu again. He had almost completely lost consciousness when a single, worrying thought occurred to him, he could no longer hear Shukaku grumbling at him and worse still, he had slept soundly for two nights and now for the third, he felt no distress at allowing himself to dream. The problem with him sleeping soundly was the simple fact that Shukaku should be keeping him awake but his head was empty and no voice grumbled at him from inside. Before he could ask the shinobi what had happened he drifted off, unaware of unnaturally green eyes watching him from the shadows once more.


	5. Chapter 5

When Gaara reopened his eyes sunlight was pouring into the cave. The fire had gone down to simmer in the ashes, the occasional small flame flickering upwards before extinguishing itself. His canteen was full beside him and he stretched his arm over to it, grabbing it and taking a drink, not bothering to sit up. The water felt good against his dry throat and he turned his head to look out of the cave. Sunlight stretched to the ground lazily, dappling the ground in various shades of green and brown. The rock on which the shinobi had sat last night was bare, looking as ominous as it had during the darkness. At first it appeared that Gaara was alone but soft breathing alerted him to another presence in the cave.

He sat up and turned his head towards the sound. Noting to himself that his head no longer spun and he didn't feel so weak that he would fall now that he was sitting up, in fact, he felt almost normal. The soft breathing kept on going, maintaining a regular rhythm. Gaara looked around the cave for the source and spotted the same shinobi from last night sitting cross legged against the wall. Her eyes were closed and her two katanas leant against her right shoulder, her arms were wrapped around them almost protectively. Gaara moved himself into a more comfortable sitting position, knocking over his canteen as he did so. There was a slight clatter as the half empty canteen fell to its side and emptied itself onto the fiery ashes, causing the ashes to hiss in protest and finally extinguish themselves.

"So you're actually awake this time?" A soft voice asked and Gaara's eyes swivelled round to the owner of the voice. Her eyes were now half open and she was gazing at him lazily, a small unreadable smile on her lips.

Gaara looked at her in confusion for a few seconds. "What do you mean?" His own voice surprised him, it sounded normal, gravelly.

"You sat up a few times during the night with a rather frightening look of bloodlust on your face. It was quite terrifying." She told him, her eyes still half closed. There were shadows under her eyes and her hair was coming out of its tie.

"Did I?" He posed it as a question but didn't expect her to answer something she had already told him. He was aware of this happening before, both Kankuro and Temari had given him grief about it, if he ever did get a full night's sleep that was. As far as he could tell it was nothing more than Shukaku grumbling at him but even so he was glad that this shinobi hadn't mistaken it for vicious intent. He decided to brush the topic off and hoped she'd leave it at that. "You appear to be tired."

The woman let out a soft laugh, the sound loud in the silence of the morning. "That would be because a certain red haired raccoon kept me up for four days. I must have dozed off at some point after you woke up last night."

"A red haired raccoon?" Gaara asked before realising that she was talking about him. His eyes widened slightly and he let out a sharp, quiet gasp. He looked away, glancing outside into the sunlight. "I have caused you that much trouble?"

The shinobi smiled again. "Don't worry yourself about it, I'm fine."

There was a few seconds of silence between the two of them but then Gaara turned back to her. Seeing he was about to ask her something she raised an eyebrow. "I don't know your name."

The woman held her smile, her eyes warm. "My name is Tsubaki, Tsubaki Kida."

Gaara closed his eyes, nodding at her answer. "Tsubaki... "Suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at Tsubaki."Where are the others?"

"The others?" Tsubaki asked, looking confused.

"The white haired shinobi, the ones who saved me. Where are they?"

Tsubaki furrowed her brow, unfolding her legs and grabbing her swords. She stood up with one fluid movement and lifted what looked like a few pieces of leather stuck together. She pulled them onto her back and it was only then that he realised that it was a harness. She extended her arms back and sheathed both her katanas at once, the movement hardly warranting her attention. Gaara waited patiently for her answer as she fixed her hair so that it was held in a high ponytail as it had last night. She walked to the mouth of the cave and looked out. "There was no one else, just me."

"I don't understand, I saw-"

"The jutsu that was used on you was strong, it probably made you hallucinate." She told him, turning back around and moving to pick up the two water canteens.

"But there were so many of them, how did you-" He stopped and his location sunk in, the closest forest to the Sand village was the one he had come from on his way home, and he hadn't seen any caves on his way over. "Where are we?" Tsubaki gave a slight cough of what seemed like embarrassment and Gaara looked up at her sharply. He didn't think that he'd ever seen someone turn such a brilliant shade of red so fast. "Tsubaki?"

"Well, I uh. There were a lot of shinobi and only one of me and I, uh, I had to save your hopeless ass, because you weren't exactly going to be much help. I would've run out of chakra fighting them all so I had to use a teleportation jutsu, which might I add I never fully mastered, and instead of ending up at the tag I wanted, I ended up here, with you in tow." She spoke quickly, her face still red and her eyes darting about.

"Where exactly is here?" Gaara asked, moving to his feet slowly.

"Border between the Hot Springs country and the Land of Fire."

Gaara's eyes widened and he leant backwards against the wall, trying to process what she had just told him. They were so far from his home. For a brief moment he closed his eyes in despair, breathing heavily and trying to wrap his head around how he came to be so far from where he called home. It would take him days to reach Sunagakure, maybe even weeks in his condition and his siblings, what would they think? Were they looking for him now?

"Don't worry; I'll get you as far as the Leaf. It's the closest allied village to us right now." Tsubaki told him, clinking the two empty canteens together. She tightened the long, red scarf around her waist. She was still holding the two canteens, one in each hand, which made the process of her fixing her scarf look awkward. She moved towards the entrance to the cave and then walked out. "I'm going to get us some water."

"But why?" Gaara asked, pushing himself off the cave wall and stumbling after her, leaving his gourd behind. He moved out into the sunlight and blinked at the brightness of the daylight. Tsubaki stood waiting for him a few metres to the left, leaning on one leg and hitting her other with a canteen impatiently.

"Because I'm thirsty." She told him nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders and beginning to walk on towards a small, clear stream.

Gaara followed her quickly, using tree trunks for support as he passed them, moving fast to keep up with her long legged stride. Normally her pace would've been similar to Gaara's own but at his current state he could do little more than stumble after her. "That's not what I meant. Why would you help me despite how much of a burden I've been?"

"I'm not doing it because I have to, it would be a waste of saving you if I let you get recaptured. That's all." She told him, kneeling down at the stream and filling both the canteens quickly and sealing them closed. She held out her hand, making a 'give me' motion with her hand. ""Your scarf, it's bloody, give it to me and I'll wash it."

Gaara looked down at his scarf and, as she asked handed it over. He'd noticed the blood last night but in the sun the scarf looked worse, looking more crimson than the white it should be. After she had in her grasp, Gaara slumped down against a tree and Tsubaki looked at him worriedly, handing over his canteen without a word. He grasped it in his right hand, fiddling with the top with his left, it came off easily and he took a long drink and a single drop escaped and rolled down his throat.

Tsubaki frowned at the state of the scarf, folding her legs and leaning forwards she dipping her hands and the scarf into the sparkling water. The water quickly turned red and the scarf began to whiten as she rubbed it clean. Her hair fell over her shoulder and the tip hit the water, wetting it slightly. Gaara watched with half closed eyes as she brushed it back behind her shoulder and continued working on the scarf. It was turning whiter by the minute and the stains were coming out nicely. After a few minutes she held it up, now back to its previous shade of white and wrung it in her hands, allowing the loose water to drip back into the stream. It still felt damp but would soon dry so she stretched out her arm to hand it over to Gaara who stretched his own arm out. He took it and nodded his head in thanks.

Gaara stood up and fixed the scarf around himself, walking over to the stream to fill up his canteen again. He sat cross legged beside Tsubaki as he did so, allowing the water to flow into the canteen. Tsubaki leant forwards and scooped up some water in her hands, splashing her face and allowing it to drip off. Immediately Gaara could see that she was more awake and he did the same, feeling refreshed and livelier as the cold water ran off in rivulets. Tsubaki smiled at him before standing up and stretching.

"The Leaf village is only a few days journey from here, although I'll give it a week in your condition. We'd better get going now if we want to reach a village by sundown." Tsubaki said, holding out a hand to help Gaara up, he took it and she pulled him up, the muscles in her arms tensing as she did so. Gaara's stomach growled in response and he looked embarrassed. Tsubaki smiled. "I have some more fish back in the cave as well as a little bread. We'll split it and I'll find us something more to eat on the way."

"Thank you."

Gaara began to walk towards the cave, following Tsubaki. When they arrived Tsubaki immediately dove into a bag and pulled out the food she had promised, handing the bigger portion to Gaara. He took it gratefully and began to eat, watching as Tsubaki packed the blanket which Gaara had slept in into a bag, pulling out her shuriken holster and two pouches from the bag. She checked the contents and attached them to her belt while the holster went onto her leg. Then she threw the bag into the back of the cave, it hit a small boulder and then fell behind it, hidden from view.

"What are you-?"

"We'll be staying in villages on our way; I have no need for extra baggage." Tsubaki told him, taking her half of the bread. She bit into it and chewed, absentmindedly taking a shuriken from her holster and spinning it round her finger.

Gaara watched the movement, then looking beyond at his gourd he sighed. "Our journey may take longer with my gourd; I doubt I'll be able to carry it for long."

"I already took that into account, we'll still get to the village by nightfall." She told him, brushing the crumbs off of her top. She looked as if the was going to tighten something around her left arm but her fingers hit air and then curled away and she tightened her scarf instead. Gaara's eyes narrowed at it but he said nothing. He noted to himself that the bandages on her arms were uneven. On the right, they went to her elbow but on the left, they went right to her shoulder and disappeared under her top.

"If," Tsubaki continued, diverting Gaara's attention from her bandaged arm back up to her face. "We leave now."

"All right." Gaara moved silently to his gourd and kunai, placing the kunai into his own pouch. He took a deep breath and hauled the gourd onto his back; he stumbled at the weight but steadied himself against the wall.

"You okay? We can stay here another day if you need." Tsubaki offered, watching him with concern.

"I'm fine, let's just go."

"Alright." She stopped suddenly, causing Gaara to look up. "We'll use my teleportation jutsu to get us closer to the Leaf or maybe we'll end up at my tag outside the Sand Village, worth a shot. This is the furthest one I have so we can only get closer."

Gaara nodded, knowing it would take the strain off of him for a while longer and shorten their journey.

Tsubaki stood at the entrance to the cave and waited for Gaara, the gourd was heavy on his back but not unmanageable. He could carry it for a few hours at least. As they stepped out into the sunlight again Gaara thought of his siblings and wondered if they were looking for him, or if they were even concerned at all. "Let's go."


	6. Chapter 6

The three Sand shinobi tore through the forest, moving faster with each leap through the trees. They had reached the forest around a few hours ago and at their speed would reach the meeting point within the hour. On their way though, they were scanning the forest, looking through the forest for any sign of Gaara. Every so often they would descend to check something on the ground but each time it led to nothing. The three were in a fanned out formation. Temari led, her eyes scanning the landscape in front and Kankuro followed behind and to the right, scanning that side. Matsuri took the rear left, scanning her side.

"Come on you two, hurry up!" Temari insisted, picking up the pace further. Kankuro and Matsuri looked at each other and struggled to match her pace.

"Temari, if we go any faster we'll miss any clues," Kankuro told her, pushing off a tree branch and stretching for the next. "And besides, if we keep up this pace we'll get there too soon, we have plenty of time."

"No we don't Kankuro!" Temari's voice was strained and her eyes were fixed straight ahead, scanning the area quickly for any sign of her youngest brother. "Don't you understand? We don't have time, every minute we waste means Gaara gets further away and in more danger, as if his disappearance isn't worrying enough. We need to find him before the worst happens!"

Kankuro looked away, scanning his area with extra diligence. He didn't want to think the worst; they couldn't afford to think like that. "Temari, I-" He stopped as a drop of wet hit his cheek. He blinked and touched his hand to his face. There was a drop of water on his cheek and he look up at the clear skies, if it wasn't coming from above then it was coming from in front.

Temari was crying.

She would kill him if he brought it up so he stayed silent, allowing her tears to flow silently down her cheeks. He wasn't hit by any other tears so he assumed she was straightening herself out. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw her rubbing her eyes dry with her purple sleeve. The three continued without further conversation. Each scanned their own area but none saw anything that would help them. The trees began to clear and they made a unanimous decision to descend until the trees thickened. Matsuri carried a backpack on her shoulders with scraps of material in it that Kakashi had requested they bring and she hoped that it would lead them to her sensei.

The three sprinted along the grass, continuing to search the area.

"Stop!" Kankuro shouted, skidding to a stop himself.

"What is it Kankuro?" Temari asked, moving beside him. Her eyes were dry now and there was no sign that she had ever lost her cool, she looked focused. Matsuri stopped slightly behind the two and looked on.

"Look."

The two kunoichi looked over to where Kankuro pointed. There appeared to have been some sort of scuffle or possibly even a tantrum, trees were sliced to ribbons and some had dents in their trunks. The damage looked one sided but on further inspection they could see multiple footsteps in the ground and a certain pair that appeared to pace back and forth.

"Kankuro-sensei, do you think these were the people who took Gaara?" Matsuri asked, looking nervously at the scene.

"If they were, the trail's a few days old, probably the same day Gaara went missing. It's rained since then so I doubt we'd get a scent from here but we can tell Kakashi about it when we meet. "Kankuro answered, kneeling down and putting a finger to the dirt, like he thought it was damp and moved under the pressure from his finger. He stood up and motioned for the three of them to ascend. Temari nodded and the three of them moved back up into the trees.

"Let us go onwards with the power of youth!" Lee cried, hopping through the trees with enthusiasm.

"Ah man, is he always like this?" Shikamaru asked, voice low and expression incredulous.

"Always." Neji confirmed, scanning the area with his byakugan. He couldn't see anyone apart from the rest of his team in the area but soon they would reach the meeting point and they would compare information with the Sand village.

"Great." Shikamaru's tone was sarcastic and he gave a look of annoyance towards his over exuberant team member. Lee however was oblivious to the glares from his two team mates and continued to leap from branch to branch with the 'power of youth'

Kakashi glanced at his team and sighed heavily, he had picked them for their abilities and strengths and had no doubt to their ability to work well together, after all they had completed missions together before, the most prominent one in Kakashi's mind being the Sasuke retrieval mission which although it had failed, had shown that they were a perfectly capable team. Along with that, both Lee and Shikamaru had some ties to the Sand already. Shikamaru had both faced and worked with Temari on previous missions, just as Lee had worked with Gaara. Neji was the only unknown variable but as opposed to when he was a hot headed genin, this matured chuunin Neji was much more suitable to work with the Sand than someone like Shino, whose cold attitude would not help the situation in the slightest.

Kakashi's original choice would have been Kiba but he was away on a mission with his family so he was out. Sakura was still in medical training and Naruto had left the village just under a year ago with Jiraiya to train. The team he had chosen, except for knowing the Sand village had their own strengths which would help the mission be a success. Neji's Byakugan was a blessing as it gave the team a large view of the entire area which would cut their search time by a long run. Shikamaru's strategic mind would help them to devise a plan for finding Gaara and his shadow possession would be more than helpful in an ambush. Lee was to be the fighter of the group, an overly hyperactive addition who would hopefully keep spirits in check and stop any arguments with reason.

"You three, stop." Kakashi muttered, already on the ground. The members of his team stopped and descended too.

"What is it Kakashi?" Shikamaru asked, moving forwards. Neji released his Byakugan but stayed silent, watching the area in case of an ambush.

"We've reached the meeting point." Kakashi told them, sitting on a log and taking out his map of the shinobi world. Before he had left he had marked the known bounty points on the map and had a route that would take them past them all, with a break at the Leaf village half way. It would take them a few days to reach the Leaf if they stopped at all the stations and kept their time right. "Our pace was sped up by Lee's enthusiasm. The Sand shinobi should be arriving soon, they may be further from this point but it's their brother who is missing, so I have no doubt their pace will be extremely fast."

"You're right Kakashi. I can see them; they're just over five hundred metres away and coming fast." Neji told them, narrowing his eyes and following the three Sand shinobi as they moved closer.

The three ninja burst from the trees and, seeing Kakashi wave them down, landed a few metres in front of the Leaf shinobi.

"Thanks for coming." Kankuro walked forward and extended a hand to Kakashi who took it and shook his hand.

"No problem, glad we could help." Kakashi told them, smiling beneath his mask. The other three Leaf ninja nodded in agreement.

"We need to find my brother immediately." It was Temari's turn to step forwards, spreading her arms out as if to prove a point. "He could be in serious danger."

"We already know what happened to Gaara, Temari. Kakashi has his dogs looking for him now." Shikamaru told her, looking up at her from his position on the ground. Temari glowered down at him but didn't reply.

Oblivious to the tension in the air Lee jumped up. "Do not worry Temari, we will find Gaara, I promise." He gave her a thumbs up in encouragement and smiled widely.

Kakashi glanced round the group, noting the awkward tension in the air. He clapped his hands together to get their attention and when they turned to face him with varying degrees of annoyance and worry. "Alright you guys. We should get to know each other quickly and familiarise ourselves with each other's abilities. I am Kakashi Hatake but you can call me Kakashi. I'm the jounin leading on this mission."

"Kakashi do we have to-" Shikamaru started but was cut off.

"Just do it Shikamaru, I need to know all I can about the team I have. How to best use the team's strengths together in case we need to split into groups." Kakashi told him dismissively.

Neji nodded. "Sounds fair."

"Yeah." Kankuro agreed, glancing at Temari who appeared to have the same way of thinking as Shikamaru.

One by one they went through their names and Kakashi nodded, sorting the group into pairs that would come in useful to each other. Kakashi would work on his own as he was the only jounin of the group. He'd pair Shikamaru and Temari together as they'd worked together twice before and they fought well together. He put Neji with Kankuro, simply because he was afraid the male Sand shinobi would murder Lee. This left Gaara's student Matsuri and Lee to pair up. He didn't tell them the pairings to begin with, instead he simply nodded and then gestured that they should come and look at the map.

"Okay, Shikamaru came up with a strategy on the way here of how to look for Gaara more effectively, so I'll let him explain this part." Kakashi told them, motioning for Shikamaru to begin.

"Right." Shikamaru muttered, moving forwards so he could point at the map. He pointed to four circles on the map, lined up to the east of their position in a kite shape. There was a cross in the centre of the kite. "These four circles are bounty exchange points, we'll spilt up into four teams and take them separately, Kakashi has agreed to give us two of his dogs each for the search. If we find Gaara or run into trouble, the hounds can summon Kakashi and then fetch the other two groups. After scouting the exchange points we'll meet up here in the village of Tanzaku, which is the cross on the map and almost centre to the exchange points."

"But what about the other exchange points to the west of us?" Temari asked, pointing out a few other circles located to the west and closer to Sunagakure.

"My ninja hounds are currently scouting those points. We'll wait here for them to return and then split up and head for our own bounty points." Kakashi told her, taking the map and putting it into his pouch. "I'll be working alone, Shikamaru, you're with Temari."

"Ah man, why do I gotta work with her?" Shikamaru complained, glancing at Temari who glared at him before turning her head away.

Kakashi sighed at the two of them before turning to Neji. "Neji, you're with Kankuro."

He nodded. "Right."

Kankuro looked at Neji sceptically but shrugged his shoulders in acceptance.

"And Lee-"

"I'm with Matsuri, right Sensei?" Lee announced, giving Matsuri a thumbs up and grinning. Matsuri responded by blushing but looking otherwise content with the choice.

"Yeah, that would be correct Lee." Kakashi told him, glancing around the group, all they had to do now was waiting for his hounds to arrive which, if they kept their promise, would be soon.

"Oh, Kakashi," Kankuro spoke up, getting Kakashi's attention. "On our way we found a site that could be from the shinobi who captured Gaara. It looks like it's rained since then so I don't know if you'll get a scent off of it but even so I thought you should know."

Kakashi nodded. "I'll send one of my hounds to check it out when they arrive."

"Thanks."

Kakashi swung his head to the west, causing a few others in the group to look at him. Shortly after, eight dogs made their way into the clearing.

"Hey." Pakkun greeted.

"Hey, any luck on the scent?" Kakashi asked the hounds, noting that both Temari and Kankuro had stepped forwards.

"No, not at those points. Sorry Kakashi." Pakkun told them and Temari and Kankuro slumped their shoulders in defeat.

"Don't worry about it; we'll check the next four points separately. Pakkun there's a site not far from here, I want you to check it out and then meet me afterwards. Got it?" Kakashi told the dog who nodded and vanished.

"Guruko, you and Akino go with Lee and Matsuri. Urushi, Uhei you two go with Kankuro and Neji. Shiba and Bisuke, you're with Shikamaru and Temari. I'll be taking you Bull along with Pakkun. Matsuri, I understand you have scraps of scent from the site." Kakashi turned to the genin, who nodded and took off her backpack. She took out a smaller pouch and handed it to Kakashi who tipped it upside down so that the fabrics fell to the ground. Immediately the dogs set to work sniffing and familiarising themselves with the scents. Pakkun reappeared and shook his head.

"The scent's old, Kakashi. I tried following the trail but I kept losing it."

"Alright. Pakkun, you're with me. Everyone know where they're going? "At the groups unanimous nod the jounin continued."Alright, we meet at the entrance to Tanzaku village tomorrow at six, don't be late and don't forget to send for me if anything happens."

"Don't worry Kakashi; if anything comes up we'll let you know." Neji confirmed.

"Yeah Kakashi, believe me it'd be a drag if we had to fight off a bunch of rogue ninja by ourselves." Shikamaru told him.

"Alright, Scatter!"


	7. Chapter 7

Kakashi had the furthest to go. His bounty point was to the East, closer to the Leaf than Tanzaku village but it was the biggest one and although he had complete faith in the six other shinobi with him, he couldn't allow them to be put in more danger than they could handle. So he was going to take the biggest one on alone, even if Gaara wasn't at the bounty station, Kakashi had no doubt that someone would recognise him and, being the copy ninja, he had a large, tempting bounty on his own head, another reason for going alone. He was moving fast, fast enough to arrive on time at Tanzaku village, even if he had to stop and fight. The trees were a simple blur and Bull was behind, trying to pick up anything that Pakkun missed. Pakkun led, face low to pick up whatever scents he could. They had been travelling for some time now and Kakashi found himself wondering about Gaara's safety, or more accurately, whether or not he was still breathing.

"Hey, Kakashi," Pakkun called, causing Kakashi to glance towards the dog, leaving his thoughts behind. "On our way back to the meeting place we stopped off at the site of Gaara's capture to try to pick up any other smells we could."

"And?" Kakashi asked, scanning the ground below them. As far as he could tell, no one had been that way in a while, especially not a group but even so, that didn't mean that the rogue shinobi hadn't gone that way, they may have disguised their trail or even gone a less direct route to avoid capture.

"We picked up the scents that the Sand supplied, along with Gaara's and the scents of the dead."

"So? What's your point?" Kakashi asked, glancing again towards the pug, who glanced back at him, not looking entirely happy about what he was going to say.

"There are two things that you should know, I didn't want to mention this earlier because of the state of the Sand ninja but I'll tell you now so you can decide if they should know and think of a nice way to tell them." At Kakashi's nod, Pakkun continued. "Firstly there was another scent there. It was disguised and like Gaara's, completely vanished."

"A disguised scent? People only use those if they really don't want to be found. S-Ranked rogue shinobi or-" Kakashi stopped, both in movement and in speech. He stayed silent for a moment, contemplating the worst and his two dogs also halted, both looking at him to continue. "Or the Akatsuki."

"Do you think that the Akatsuki have Gaara?" Bull asked, his voice gruff. It was unusual for the big dog to speak but the points he made were always important.

"I hope not." Kakashi raised his knuckle to his lip, pondering the variables. "Although this masked scent does shine some more light on the theory that the group turned on each other or another person joined the party, instead of the dead being Gaara's doing."

Kakashi moved again, keeping high enough so that he wouldn't be noticed by anyone on the ground, but low enough so that he could clearly see anyone below him. Bull and Pakkun followed after a second's pause, moving back into their positions at the front and rear of the group.

"The second thing that you should know is about Gaara." Pakkun continued, glancing around at Kakashi once more. "His scent was strong but unbelievably weak. If I'm honest, it's hard to imagine that he's still alive, unless someone wants him to be and managed to either transfer chakra to him or use medical ninjutsu to heal him. That's unlikely because-"

"Because there would be no point in healing him if they wanted to trade him in for his bounty money." Kakashi continued for Pakkun, narrowing his eyes and picking up the pace. If Gaara was dead there would be mixed reactions, some would be joyous as the threat to their village had diminished but others, friends of Gaara would be devastated, people like Naruto, Lee or Matsuri. Even Kakashi himself would feel a sense of regret at not finding him in time. He didn't want to imagine the reaction of Gaara's siblings though; they'd never forgive themselves for letting Gaara out of their sight.

"Yeah." Pakkun confirmed, his eyes fixed forwards. They were near the bounty collection point; it would only be a matter of time until they found out whether or not they had pulled the lucky straw or were following a wild goose chase. For the sake of the rest of the team, Kakashi hoped that he had picked the lucky straw. Even if Gaara wasn't there, he would still be able to question any rogue shinobi that he happened to find there.

"From what I can tell there are three options concerning Gaara's wellbeing. He was killed quickly, so that the Shukaku couldn't awaken because if it had, we'd know about it. He is being kept alive but unconscious and the Shukaku is being kept at bay by some sort of seal or he's alive and making his way home, which is unlikely given the circumstances." Kakashi muttered, stopping as they came to a clearing in the trees. At first glance, the place appeared deserted, just an empty building but that was the location of the biggest exchange point in the Land of Fire so he had to be wary.

"Can you smell anyone?" Kakashi asked, scanning the area carefully. His eye picked up no one but he had to rely on his dogs' sense of smell to be certain. The building was large but unimpressive, paint peeled from the walls and there were cracks in the wood but that was more than likely a rouse to discourage normal people from frequenting that place.

"Yeah, I can smell two of the shinobi from the scraps we got. They aren't far from here, quite powerful; I'd give them a high A-Rank. They have traces of Gaara's scent on them but I can't tell if that's from the earlier fight or because they actually had Gaara." Pakkun told him, pointing a paw in the direction of the smell.

"Okay, I'm going down there to wait for them." Kakashi jumped from the tree, landing silently and heading towards the bounty station where he would wait for the two shinobi which Pakkun had told him about. He hoped that they had a breathing Gaara with them, the mission would be complete and the Sand shinobi happy but Kakashi doubted that they had Gaara, it was a feeling at the back of his head that Gaara hadn't been taken by a group of people but by the one shinobi they couldn't actually trace by scent.

Two shinobi walked towards the bounty station, one complaining loudly about the job that they had been given. "Why do we gotta scout out the bounty points? That shinobi got ridda the kid days ago, there ain't no way we gonna get him back from that ninja. They were too strong."

"But they retreated, remember? I think it was just a bluff and we can prove it if we-" The quieter one stopped, causing the loud one to look back at him.

"What? Wait whoa!" He cried as he was dragged into the bushes. "What was that all about?"

The quieter shinobi hushed him. "That's Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja!" He whispered furiously, pointing towards a distant figure who stared up at the bounty point. "If we get him we're set for life, his bounty's huge! We won't need to go back to Scar!"

The louder shinobi's face twisted into a smile, his features were ugly and his clothes torn. "Gotcha."

Together they made their way through the trees, approaching with complete silence. Kakashi didn't turn and instead kept staring at the building. Kunai were produced from their pockets and with a silent nod from the quieter one, they both rushed forwards, each taking a side and stabbing their kunai into Kakashi's abdomen. Their eyes widened as Kakashi stayed still, not reacting to the kunai now sticking from his sides. The louder of the two jumped in front of the Copy Ninja with a smirk but his victory was short lived.

"A scarecrow?" He asked, staring dumbfounded at the figure. Kakashi was written on the face and it seemed to mock the two of them. The quieter one also moved to the front, his face contorted in rage. He stared at the scarecrow in disbelief for a few seconds before punching it so hard that its head fell off and hit the ground with a thump a few metres away.

"What does he think we are, can't he face us himself or is he too afraid of our abilities. Where did he go? Was he mocking us or-" The quieter one snarled, his eyes flicking from side to side angrily.

"Looking for me?"

Shikamaru was wondering how he always seemed to get stuck working with Temari. Sure she was a good fighter, he'd admit that much but it was as if someone was trying to give him grey hairs or something like that. The girl was a nightmare, especially now Gaara was missing. Her usual cockiness was gone and her face wore a constant look of worry and she had snapped at Shikamaru more than once to hurry up, which in his opinion was a drag. He could understand why she was worried though, if he had a sibling go missing like Gaara had, he'd probably be reacting the same way Temari was now, although he wouldn't admit that to her. He wasn't used to seeing this side of Temari, the side which could be hurt and it was strange to him to see her so vulnerable, if he could call her that.

"Come on Shikamaru, hurry it up!" Temari demanded for the fifth or maybe the sixth time, even the two dogs that Kakashi had provided looked at the Kunoichi in disbelief. They were already going as fast as they could and yet Temari seemed to be speeding up with almost limitless stamina.

"I'm going as fast I can, you should try slowing down a bit, you're getting on my nerves." Shikamaru retorted lazily. There would be no point in arriving early at the bounty point only to be unfit to fight if needed. Although he had told Kakashi that they would summon him if they ran into trouble, Shikamaru hoped that they'd be able to handle themselves and let Kakashi get on with his own mission. It would be a waste if they summoned Kakashi if he was in the middle of saving Gaara.

"Maybe you should stop being so lazy and go at a proper speed!" Temari snapped, gritting her teeth and struggling not to hit him.

"Maybe you're just going too fast for the rest of the group and will be useless in a fight." Shikamaru shot back, beginning to get angry.

"Yeah well maybe you're just-"

"Enough!" The dog leading them snarled, baring its teeth as it turned its head to face them. Shiba was its name if Shikamaru recalled correctly. "If you two don't quiet down and get along then it doesn't matter if we get there sooner or later, they'll hear us a mile off and, if he's not already dead, kill your Gaara and run for it. Is that what you want?"

Temari's mouth opened as if to protest but Shikamaru spoke first. "Leave it Temari, they're leading us to the exchange point, we can't be foolish about this if we want to save your brother."

Temari bit her lip but nodded in some form of agreement. "All right but we still need to-"

"No we don't, we need to conserve our strength and stamina so if we do need to fight, we can win. Gaara's life may depend on it and if we get there quickly but are unable to fight, we'll be open to enemy attacks." Shikamaru told her, his voice back to its normal tone and his mind beginning to form a plan.

"I know it's just-"

"Don't worry about it." Shikamaru brushed off what he thought was an apology and the two moved in silence for a while. The two dogs with them breathed sighs of relief; they didn't want to be caught in the middle of some sort of lovers spat. As the bounty point neared the tension grew and Temari couldn't hold the silence much longer.

"What if they have Gaara? What do we do then?" She asked Shikamaru, voice low and urgent.

"Don't worry, I have a plan. We'll need to take care of any rogue shinobi first before even thinking about Gaara. I can stop them with my shadow possession jutsu and you can ask whatever questions you like, as long as you finish them before my jutsu runs out." Shikamaru explained, glancing at the kunoichi. He wasn't sure if her could trust her to keep her cool if taunted but he had no choice, after all Kakashi had put them together, so they had to make it work.

"There it is." Shiba growled, descending and then stopping on ground level. The two shinobi and the other dog followed suit, moving silently to a stop and glimpsing out from their position behind the bushes. A single shinobi sat on the steps to the bounty exchange point. He looked bored and kept glancing behind him as if waiting for someone. He held a rather large club on his back and both shinobi made mental notes not to get hit by it.

"There are two of them, one is in the building." Bisuke told them, sniffing the air. "I'd guess they were low A-ranked shinobi. You shouldn't have much difficulty in dealing with them. If you play your cards right that is."

Shikamaru nodded, the place gave him an eerie sense of déjà vu and he didn't like it one bit. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen there, if not with Temari then with someone else. Someone was going to die there. The idea caused him to sweat slightly and Temari noticed his sudden unease.

"What is it Shikamaru?"

"It's nothing; I just don't like this place. It gives me the creeps." Shikamaru told her dismissively before turning back to the hounds. "Is Gaara there?"

"Hard to tell, there are many dead in that building along with another extremely potent smell. It is difficult to pinpoint whether or not Gaara's scent is actually there or if it's just a trace." Shiba told them, lying on the ground and staring through the bushes.

"Alright, Thanks. Let's go Temari." Shikamaru hissed, forming the hand signs needed for his jutsu. His shadow contorted and stretched, making its way towards the absent minded shinobi in front of them. The shinobi spotted the shadow and stood up.

"What the-?" He began but soon felt the result of the Nara clan's shadow possession jutsu. His face twisted as he realised his limbs no longer belonged to him. "I can't move my body!"

Shikamaru and Temari emerged from the bushes; Shikamaru walking forward forced the rogue shinobi to approach, despite his loud and very venomous complaints. When they were still a safe distance apart but close enough to hear the shinobi clearly they stopped and Shikamaru dropped his hands. He looked at Temari, who nodded, ready to start her questions.

"Gaara of the Sand, Do you have him?" Her voice was strained but eager and the rogue shinobi picked up on her tone.

"Have him? No, we're looking for his body. We want his bounty." He replied, brushing the matter off with a smirk.

"His…his body?" Temari asked, her voice tight. Shikamaru glanced at her, willing her to stay focused but he could see desperation beginning to form in her eyes.

"Yeah, he's dead all right, killed by a life stealing jutsu. He was taken by our group by a little thief but that thief isn't going to get very far, especially not carrying such a heavy burden." The ninja smirked again as he watched Temari's eyes widen, absorbing what he was saying.

Shikamaru frowned, the other shinobi should have heard the commotion and come out into Shikamaru's grasp. Instead the door stayed shut and no one moved from behind the building. It gave him a feeling of unease as he glanced back at the dogs for any help, they appeared to have vanished though, having completed their task and Shikamaru groaned inwardly, something wasn't right.

"You're lying, my brother's alive I know it!" Temari shouted, pulling a kunai from her pouch and moving forwards. The thought of Gaara being dead had shut the rational part of her brain off and she was approaching the rogue shinobi like she was going to destroy him. Her hands were shaking as she made her way closer to the rogue shinobi and her eyes were narrowed in hatred.

The shinobi simply smirked, causing Temari's rage to increase. The ground seemed to shift under his feet and Shikamaru's eyes widened as the realisation hit him. "Temari! Move! It's a trap!"

"So, last time I saw you, you got your ass handed to you by Naruto." Kankuro told Neji nonchalantly as they made their way through the trees, hopping from branch to branch and following the ninja hound's nose.

"Well, last I saw of you, you chickened out of your match with Shino." Neji frowned, glaring at Kankuro. He wasn't using his byakugan because they had the dogs leading them and saving chakra might come in handy for later. He didn't quite understand the Sand shinobi beside him, he was calmer than the blonde haired one Temari, but beneath the face paint Neji could see that he was stressed. He assumed that the Sand shinobi was trying to blow off steam by making a wise crack at him.

Kankuro laughed at Neji's reply, seemingly unoffended."Yeah, I was a bit of an idiot back then, I think we all were."

Neji was surprised at his response and at once all reservations he'd had about Kankuro were almost completely gone. He seemed like an almost nice guy, focused on finding his little brother, completely different to a year ago when he along with his siblings and the rest of the Sand village had attacked Konohagakure. "Yes, I think everybody has matured since then."

Kankuro nodded, his face turning serious as he fixed the straps around his chest to a more comfortable position." I need to know that you're gonna be able to back me up in an attack. Close combat isn't my forte so if an enemy shinobi breaks through my defences I'm toast."

Neji glanced at Kankuro and now that he was serious, Neji could see the worry on his face a lot more clearly. The Sand ninja really was worried about his brother. "Of course, we're in a team aren't we? We're meant to have each other's back."

Kankuro nodded once, it was curt but Neji could see the gratitude on his face. "Thanks."

"As for your brother, if we don't find him, someone else will. He's strong so I doubt he'll let himself die. It's only a matter of time before he comes back." Neji offered some comfort to Kankuro, he wasn't sure how he was doing on the matter but he thought it would be better than silence. Silence would only help the seeds of doubt grow and make anyone become considerably more worried.

"I know, Gaara won't die until the people of the Sand acknowledge him as a friend instead of a threat, he wants to protect his village and he needs the villagers to know that." Kankuro smiled, distracted for a second by his thoughts. "He wants to become Kazekage. He sure can dream big, I'll give him that much."

"Sounds like Naruto Uzumaki, he wants to become Hokage too." Neji commented, scanning the ground quickly then looking up again, they had to be near to the bounty point, they'd been moving for a long while.

"Yeah, I think that kid gave Gaara his dreams. Something happened when they fought and after they did, Gaara changed for the better. Without that little knucklehead I don't know what would have happened." Kankuro seemed happier now, the worry almost gone from his face and his pace lighter.

"Naruto seems to be good at that." Neji noted, thinking back to their fight in the chuunin exams, before fighting Naruto he'd been pompous, sure of his abilities but afterwards he felt free, like someone had opened the door to his cage and he was allowed to shape his own destiny, which was something he was going to do.

"You two should quiet down now. We're close." One of Kakashi's dogs warned them, glancing back at the two shinobi. He eyed the two chuunin sceptically, not sure of their abilities but Kakashi trusted them, so the dogs would help get them the exchange point.

The two shinobi glanced at each other and nodded silently. They both wore serious expressions, the light hearted conversation falling to the past. Kankuro's light pace became heavier and the strain became evident on his face once more. The trees began to become scarce and they descended to ground level, running low through the undergrowth. A large boulder came into view and the two shinobi ducked behind it, glancing forwards at the building. It appeared deserted but they kept their guard up, looking to the dogs for confirmation of their suspicions.

"There's no one there now but they left very recently. It would probably be a good idea to check the building just in case anyway." Kakashi's other dog commented. "We'll stay here for you and bark if we smell anything, or anyone."

"All right, let's go Kankuro." Neji straightened up and darted towards the building. He activated his byakugan and looked through the door. Just as the hound had said, the building was empty and Neji motioned for Kankuro to open the door. Kankuro put a hand on the door handle and pushed it open, moving into the building slowly. The door was a thick metal, most likely built to withstand attacks from paper bombs, the whole building appeared to be fortified, the walls were thick stone and the windows small. Neji followed behind, glancing around with his byakugan for any sign of people inside the building.

"Jeez, this place is a dump." Kankuro complained, looking round the room at the cobwebs and mould. The furniture was all misplaced and thrown about, as if someone had been searching for something desperately.

"Yeah, it is." Neji confirmed. He took one last look around with his byakugan before deactivating it. "Gaara's definitely not here, I don't think he ever was. There's a floor beneath us but it appears to have been cleared out in a hurry, he's not down there. "

"Yeah, I was afraid of that." Kankuro sighed, pulling off his hood and sitting on an overturned chair, his shoulders slumped and he looked defeated. "Maybe one of the other groups has found him."

"Maybe," Neji echoed, looking round at the mess. "We should go, there's no point in staying here any longer. If we reach Tanzaku village early we can get any supplies we need and you can report back to the Sand if you need to before the others arrive."

"I guess you're right." Kankuro stood up and grabbed his hood, readjusting his straps for the puppets again silently.

There was a slight shift in the air of the room and, feeling uneasy, Neji reactivated his byakugan. His eyes widened as he spun round. There was a glint of a blade as a katana swung downwards towards Kankuro's head. Kankuro began to turn as Neji shouted at him to move. Then the katana met substance.

Lee was being his usual self, his positive attitude unwavering as he leapt through the trees, following Kakashi's dog with enthusiasm. The Sand shinobi of the group was more reserved but allowed herself to be amused at Lee, glancing at him every few minutes with a curious look.

"Do not worry Matsuri," Lee announced, turning his head towards her. "We will find Gaara and if we do not, then another of our team will. I am sure of it!"

Matsuri nodded, reaching into her weapons pouch and gripping her rope javelin. "I know, Gaara-sensei is the strongest person I've ever met and I just know he's on his way home right now. He has to be."

"I remember when I first fought Gaara," Lee mused, thinking back to the chuunin exams. "He was so powerful that I could barely lay a scratch on him and then he both crushed my arm and my leg."

Matsuri gasped, looking a Lee in shock, she hadn't been aware of that. Why did this Leaf shinobi see so willing to help Gaara if he had done that? Lee didn't appear to notice her gasp and look of horror and continued looking forwards, eyes fixed straight ahead and a look of triumph on his face.

"Do not worry, I am not one to hold a grudge. Not long after we met again and this time, he saved my life. He risked his own life to protect me. He had changed from when we had first fought although he still appeared annoyed at my sensei. Gaara is a good person. I will not let him die." Lee assured her, smiling back at her and giving her a thumbs up. This was something that he appeared to do a lot, Matsuri noted silently to herself.

"He saved me too." Matsuri stated, taking her hand from her pouch and focusing her attention on keeping a constant speed. "He came after me when I was abducted by a group of people who called themselves the celestials. Gaara came after me and saved me, he nearly died in the process. He also taught me that a weapon doesn't have to be used to destroy but can be used to protect and so… I want to protect my sensei no matter what!"

Lee grinned. "And that we shall do! We will find Gaara and bring him home."

Comforted by his encouragement, Matsuri allowed herself to relax and focus on the task at hand. She knew that she'd probably have to fight and use her rope javelin, something which, under Gaara's teaching, she had all but mastered. She owed him a lot after all he had devoted hours on end to teaching her everything there was to know about being a shinobi, he had taught her how to walk up trees and create a substitution of herself in the midst of a fight. He really had taught her everything she now knew and she was so grateful to him for that. That was something that she wanted him to know, how grateful she was to him and so he had to be alive to hear it. Although many of the academy students were still wary of Gaara, Matsuri felt completely comfortable with him and she didn't understand everybody else's wariness. He was a kind person, almost never losing his temper and she'd never seen him use his sand as a weapon, although she'd heard stories of how deadly it could be.

Gaara himself had told her stories about him, how he used to be before a boy named Naruto had changed his perspectives. She enjoyed hearing them, knowing that he was no longer like that. She'd seen Gaara laugh and smile, something which was so rare from him and it had made her happy too. She wanted to make him laugh again, so they had to find him.

Lee was also thinking about Gaara, how much he'd changed to be exact. When they had fought Lee had almost died and then afterwards Gaara had gone to the hospital to finish the job, only to be stopped by Naruto, Shikamaru and Guy-sensei. The Gaara Lee had known then was gone, replaced by a new, righteous Gaara whose control over his tailed beast was nothing to be sneezed at. Lee would even go so far as to say that Gaara's control was better than Naruto's own. The second time they had met Gaara had indeed saved Lee's life, even going so far as to protect him from any and all attacks, lifting him from the ground when needed and then keeping him out of the way of danger. Like Naruto, Gaara considered Gaara a friend despite their shaky start and like Matsuri, Lee wanted to bring Gaara back alive.

"You two, up ahead is the bounty station, there's only one person there." Akino told them, looking back at the two ninja.

"Right!" Lee said, looking forwards once more. "Do not worry Matsuri, we will find Gaara."

The four of them stopped at the end of the trees, glancing down at the small, worn down bounty station. The shinobi there was smoking and looking like he'd rather be somewhere else. He didn't appear to be very dangerous but the two shinobi both knew that appearances could be more than just deceiving, they could be fatal.

The two had devised a plan on their way and they hoped that it would work. The two dogs gave them a nod before disappearing, allowing the two genin to ready themselves for a fight. Both wore expressions of concentration as the stared at the rogue shinobi in front of them. He was smoking lazily and didn't appear to have any weapons apart from kunai and shuriken. Lee nodded to Matsuri and she nodded back, ready to start the mission.

Matsuri reached into her pouch and lifted out her rope javelin watching silently as Lee jumped down from his position high in the trees and into the shinobi's view. "I have come looking for Gaara of the Sand. Where is he?"

The ninja dropped his cigarette and rubbed it into the ground with his toe, putting it out. He grinned sadistically and straightened up. "Who?"

_AN: Thanks for reading! Please review, follow and favourite if you like it. To clarify, this is not a Gaara/OC love story, I repeat, no love between Gaara and the OC. _

_In case any of you were wondering, the bounty station that Shikamaru gets unnerved by is the same one that he, Asuma, Izumo and Kotetsu are sent to in Shippuden during the Hidan and Kakuzu arc. _


	8. Chapter 8

"Looking for me?" A cool voice asked from behind the two shinobi. The two tensed and the quieter one swung round, grabbing the kunai from the scarecrow and plunging it towards the sound of the voice. Kakashi saw the attack coming and jumped back, landing first on his hands and then flipping over onto his feet. He wore a bemused expression, looking at the two with his eye. His sharingan could wait; the two shinobi facing him seemed badly paired and overconfident. "So, who are you two?"

"Name's Bakin and this is my partner, Nobu, and you are Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja." The quieter one stated, pointing his kunai towards Kakashi. "You have a nice bounty on your head, a much bigger one than that pesky little Sand ninja we were sent to capture."

"Oh, you mean Gaara?" Kakashi asked, looking at the two more carefully, as far as he could tell, the quieter one, Bakin, was the leader of the two whereas Nobu did what he was told, but at the same time they both appeared independent of each other. "Where is he?"

"I'm afraid we can't tell you that, we'd be betraying our boss wouldn't we Nobu?"

"Yeah, going behind the boss's back." Nobu confirmed, grinning with yellowed, broken teeth.

"But you do know him." Kakashi stated. The two would be talking by the time he was finished with him, that much he knew, and if one perished the other would only be more likely to talk. He decided to cut the small talk, moving his hand to create two seals.

_Fire style: Fireball jutsu_

Kakashi moved his head back for a brief second before blowing flames towards his opponents. The shock was evident on their faces as the two leapt back erratically, jumping out of the way of the flames. Kakashi readied himself to repeat the technique, making his hand seals once more. Nobu, seeing that they were going to be bombarded with flames for a second time, threw up a water shield, blocking Kakashi's attack effectively. With a single hand sign, he transformed the shield into a water dragon whip which moved quickly towards Kakashi, transforming into sharp needles.

Kakashi barely had time to jump back before he was impaled, eyes wide.

"Ha! Seems like the great Kakashi Hatake is not so great aft-" Nobu stopped as the impaled Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke. "Huh?"

A hand shot out of the ground below Nobu, grabbing his ankle and pulling him down into the ground so that only his head remained visible. Kakashi burst from the ground, his sharingan visible to the world as pieces of earth fell from his hair.

"So this is the legendary sharingan of the Uchiha clan. How exactly did you manage to steal it?" Bakin taunted, raising his kunai.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he removed his own kunai from his pouch. "It was a gift, from an old friend." He rushed forwards, attempting to strike the shinobi's heart but Bakin raised his own kunai in defence, causing Kakashi to hit metal. Bakin retaliated, swinging his kunai towards Kakashi's throat while Kakashi stabbed his kunai into the shinobi's arm. Just as Bakin's kunai reached Kakashi's throat, Kakashi raised his knee and sent Bakin flying backwards. Bakin's kunai missing its target by only a few millimetres.

Bakin swore and tugged the kunai from his arm, clutching it as he glared at Kakashi. Blood spilled from the wound and, seeing that the fight was not his to win via taijutsu, Bakin raised an earth barrier in defence. Nobu complained loudly that he was still stuck in the ground but his partner ignored his loud voice. There was no loyalty between the two and Bakin was preoccupied with protecting himself.

Outside the barrier, Kakashi, formed three hand signs and then gripped his right arm with his left hand. Lightning style chakra burst into life and began to cover his hand. The chidori quickly stabilised and Kakashi moved towards the earth barrier. He thrust his hand through the earth, parting it easily and releasing the chidori, grabbed the rogue shinobi's neck. Bakin made a loud noise of surprise which was cut short by a resounding snap. His body became limp and Kakashi removed his arm from the wall, turning towards the last, now terrified rogue shinobi.

"So, I was asking about Gaara." Kakashi began, rubbing some more dirt from his hair.

Nobu's eyes widened as the copy ninja began to approach. "I… I don't know nothing!" He insisted, shaking his head in defence.

"We both know that's not true. I have a pretty keen nose and if I'm not mistaken, you've come into contact with him recently, haven't you." Kakashi's statement was cold, his sharingan fixed on the rogue ninja for a few seconds before Nobu looked away, terrified. "Where is he?"

"I don't know! Last I saw him was in the desert! Some other shinobi grabbed him!" The shinobi claimed, shaking visibly.

"Alright, next question, who grabbed him?" Kakashi pulled his forehead protector down over his sharingan eye, glancing to the left as the earth wall began to crumble, showing the limp body of Bakin.

"I don't know! Honest! They had a hood and were gone within a minute! I don't even know if they were actually male, Bakin said they was male but I don't know! They moved too fast to get a good look. "

"Really." Kakashi's tone was dry, not quite believing the rogue shinobi's story. "Where were they heading?"

"No one knows! They just vanished into thin air with the bounty. That's why we're out here, see? We have to look for the bounty and find it before they can cash it in!" The rogue shinobi told him, seeming eager now to answer Kakashi's questions.

"What did this other shinobi look like?"

"I already told you, they moved to quick for me to see! They had white hair and, well, looked a bit like you." Nobu claimed.

"Really?" Kakashi asked, growing confused. While it was more than possible for the shinobi to have used a transformation jutsu, it was hard to believe that he'd be the end result. "What else?"

They had on some sort of scarf on their waist but-"

"A scarf?" Kakashi pondered, frowning at the shinobi. "What kind of scarf?"

The rogue shinobi thought for a second, furrowing his brow as if trying to remember. "It was red, red and it looked like it'd been torn at one end."

Kakashi nodded, thinking about the scarf for a few seconds more before deciding that it wasn't exactly useful information. Any number of shinobi had red scarves but at the same time, one of them possibly had Gaara. A male shinobi with a red scarf narrowed down the search further so he clocked the information into his head and moved onto his next question. "What about the rest of your group, I know there were more of you."

"They're doing what I'm doing, see? They're going round all the bounty points too to look for that Sand ninja, boss said that whoever finds him first gets ten percent of the bounty!"

Kakashi gritted his teeth, now it wasn't just him and his team that were looking for Gaara, a whole group of rogue shinobi were on his trail, whoever had Gaara either had to be very careful or very quick to get rid of Gaara with all these people searching for them. "Okay, Last question. Is Gaara still alive?"

The rogue shinobi looked confused for a few seconds before speaking. "I dunno, Jerso's jutsu is pretty strong, it'd be a miracle if he is still alive."

"Alright, thanks for your help." Kakashi smiled and crouched down beside Nobu. There was another loud snap which travelled through the air, echoing softly through the forest. Kakashi straightened up and walked back towards the two dogs that emerged from the trees to meet him.

"So, You think that was the masked scent we picked up? The one who has Gaara?" Pakkun asked, sitting near Kakashi's feet.

"More than likely." Kakashi confirmed, lifting his knuckle to his lip. "Although it looks like we aren't the only ones looking for Gaara now."

"That could be a problem." Bull commented, looking round the clearing. "Hey Kakashi, we should go, there are more rogue shinobi coming this way and none of them match the scents we got earlier, fighting them would be a waste of time."

"All right, let's head to Tanzaku village and wait for the others." Kakashi agreed, pushing off his toes and leaping into the trees, heading west towards Tanzaku village.

_"Temari! Move! It's a trap!" _

Temari's eyes widened as she felt the ground move below her. She attempted to skid to a stop but it was too late. A hand burst from the ground, reaching for her ankle and just as it touched the fabric of her sandal Temari was yanked backwards, out of the shinobi's grasp. She gasped and looked at her feet, a long black shadow stretched from Shikamaru as he panted, glancing at Temari with worry.

"You okay?" He asked, watching as the second rogue shinobi emerged from the ground, looking murderous at his missed target.

"Yeah, thanks. I owe you one." Temari told him, calming down quickly. Shikamaru had been right; they had to keep their cool to get Gaara back.

"No problem, just don't do it again. It's a drag." Shikamaru responded, releasing his shadow possession from Temari. He'd had to leap back himself while saving her and the shadow controlling the other shinobi was harder to maintain at this distance. He stretched his shadow towards the other shinobi but he bounced back out of Shikamaru's range. "Damn."

"Hey Jerso, feel like getting me out of this thing, it's annoying, I can't move my body!" Shikamaru glanced towards the shinobi he'd caught before focusing his attention on the new one, Jerso.

"Pipe down Sen, I'm a little busy." Jerso hissed at his partner, not appearing too happy at the situation.

"Temari, if I hold this one, I can't go for the other one at that distance. You've gotta bring him down or get him close to me so I can hold him." Shikamaru told the kunoichi, who glanced at him and nodded.

"Alright, leave it to me." Temari confirmed, reaching behind her for her fan. She opened it smoothly, showing all three moons and gripped it tightly, her legs slightly bent as she readied herself for combat.

Jerso tilted his head, a sly smile spreading across his face. "Wait a minute; you wouldn't happen to know that little red haired brat from the Sand would you?"

Temari's knuckles turned white as she gripped her fan harder. "What have you done with Gaara?"

"Oh, so you do know him them." The shinobi's smile widened. "His life force was so vibrant, really it was. He struggled so hard to stay alive, it was so amusing."

Temari's eyes widened once more and tears formed at the corner of her eyes as she processed what he was telling her. "Did you kill my little brother?"

"Temari, he's just taunting you, stay focused." Shikamaru warned her, narrowing his eyes towards the shinobi.

"Well, let's just say if the brat's alive I'd be more than surprised." Jerso commented, enjoying how worked up he was making the kunoichi.

"Shut up." Temari growled, gritting her teeth and glaring at the rogue shinobi through slit eyes. Everything moved quickly then. Temari swung her fan with enough force to activate her wind scythe jutsu and Jerso created a wall of earth to block it.

Temari leapt onto the wall and swung her fan again, causing the rogue shinobi to create another wall of defence. Temari continued to chase him, barely giving him enough time to create his walls as she continued her offence. She was more than angry, she was desperate and she needed to know if her brother was alive, whatever it took. She threw her kunai, hitting another mud wall and, feeling desperate, threw her shuriken at Jerso, who dodged them easily.

Running out of options, Temari swung her fan again, but instead of building a wall, Jerso used a different jutsu, mud spilled from under his feet and carried him behind Temari. She swung around, slightly off balance and, seeing his chance, Jerso activated a mudslide jutsu. Attempting to avoid it Temari jumped out of the way but was dragged back down by tendrils of mud. She let out a gasp as the mud reached her knees, swinging her fan once more at Jerso in an attempt to foil his attack. Focused on the jutsu he leapt backwards, out of the way of her somewhat clumsy attack. Jerso laughed, using the mud to wretch her fan from her hands. He raised his own hands for a second jutsu before becoming still.

"I- I can't-!"

"Forget about me?" Shikamaru asked as a bead of sweat moved down his face. His shadow jutsu had been stretched by the walls creating shadows for him to manipulate but even so he was struggling. He glanced at Temari, who looked back at him with eyes full of anger. _I hope I never get on her bad side. _Shikamaru thought to himself as he glanced at the destruction she'd created. "Hey Temari, I hope you can get yourself out of that because I'm kinda at my limit here."

Temari nodded silently, anger fading from her face as she began to weasel her way out of the mud. She freed one leg and placed it on top of the hardening mud, giving her a halfway solid grip to pull the other out. The mud continued to harden as she tugged at her other foot. "I can't free my other foot."

Her statement was soft and civil but they both knew what that meant. Shikamaru could only hold the two rogue shinobi for so long; he was already beginning to feel the pressure as another bead of sweat rolled down his face. Temari swallowed and tugged at her foot again, wishing she'd kept some kunai to dig herself out.

They were at a stalemate.

Shikamaru racked his brain, trying to think of a solution that would get the two of them out alive. He would use his kunai but the rogue shinobi held theirs in the same place he held his, so he'd be throwing them at himself, which would likely kill him. His shadow possession jutsu waned slightly before reforming and he glanced around. If he tried to use his shadow strangulation on two of them it'd fail, he didn't have the stamina for that. If he used it on one, he'd have to release his hold on the other which would leave him low on jutsu and Temari a sitting duck, making them both easy targets. The sun beat down as Shikamaru attempted to keep his cool and think of a way out.

"Need some help kid?" A rough voice asked from behind him. Shikamaru swung round, eyes landing on two furry bodies.

"Where the hell were you two?" Shikamaru demanded, glaring at the two dogs behind him.

"Same place you left us, we saw that you were struggling so we'll dig your girlfriend out for you."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Shikamaru retorted, watching as the two dogs leapt onto the mud and one began to dig furiously, the other went to retrieve her fan, picking it up with its mouth and padding back over to her. Temari gave her leg another tug and it come loose, the release was sudden and she fell over, hissing in pain as she went. "Temari?"

"I'm good," She insisted, grabbing her fan and standing up, her face contorted for a second before she fixed herself. "Don't worry."

Using her fan as a crutch she made her way over to Jerso, who scowled at her, showing his teeth. On her way she picked up one of her kunai. "Where is my brother? Is he alive?"

"I have no clue, probably lying on a slab right now, cold and rotting." Temari narrowed her eyes, moving the blade across the shinobi's throat. Jerso smirked, falling to the ground as he was released from Shikamaru's jutsu. He didn't move after that.

The two turned to the last shinobi, who looked uncomfortable. Before either of them could say anything he gave, looking from the kunoichi to the shinobi with something that resembled panic. "Look, I don't know where the kid is, okay? Some guy ran off with him before Jerso could finish his jutsu. He might still be alive but I'd doubt it and before you ask I have no idea where he is, we're looking for him too."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Temari who nodded silently, silent permission to release his jutsu.

"Gee thanks man I don't know-" The shinobi moved fast, chucking two kunai at Shikamaru and Temari, they only got halfway before Temari swung her fan. She teetered before lowering it again and leaning on it for support once more. Shikamaru finished the rogue shinobi off with shadow strangulation, draining his own chakra right down.

He allowed himself to flop to the ground, noting that Temari did the same beside him. "So, Gaara might be alive?"

"Yeah." Temari agreed, panting heavily. The fight had worn the two of them out and Temari's ankle was beginning to grow in size. Shikamaru looked at it with worry before reaching into his pouch and pulling out a roll of bandages.

"Did you have to pull it out before the dog reached it?" Shikamaru scolded, frowning as he moved to the foot, lifting it up and setting it down on his knee so he could bandage it easily.

"Dog has a name." Shiba growled, glancing at the two of them.

"Well maybe if you'd caught him earlier we wouldn't be in this mess." Temari retorted, turning her head.

"I told you I couldn't reach woman, what more do you want from me?" Shikamaru asked, pulling off her sandal and inspecting the ankle closely. Although it was swelling, it didn't appear to be serious, just a minor sprain. Shikamaru began to wrap it, making sure that it wasn't so tight that it would cut off blood supply to her toes but not loose enough to be rendered useless. Temari mumbled something incoherent and Shikamaru glanced up at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Look if you two want to have another lover's spat can you do it when we're not here." Shiba complained.

"We're not together!" The two shinobi growled ferociously, causing the dogs to back up a few steps. Shikamaru finished fastening the bandage, tying the ends and replacing her sandal with annoyance at the dogs' claims.

"Ouch." Temari muttered, folding her arms and glaring at Shikamaru.

"Sorry."

"If you two are done we should get going, we don't want to spend longer here than we have to, and it'll take us longer to get back with her ankle too." Bisuke commented, sniffing the air.

"What a drag." Shikamaru muttered, standing up and glancing around.

"Sorry for being such an inconvenience." Temari grumbled, grabbing her fan attempting to push herself up.

"Oh come on woman, I didn't mean it like that." Shikamaru told her, stretching out a hand to her. She took it and he pulled her up, immediately moving to support her.

"I can manage on my own." Temari hissed. Shikamaru snorted and, as if to prove a point, let her go. She immediately reached out for his support again, grumbling softly to herself and Shikamaru pulled her arm over his shoulders. Temari placed her fan back into its hold and let Shikamaru support her waist.

"Alright, next stop Tanzaku village." Shikamaru announced lazily, leaping into the trees with Temari in tow. The two dogs followed silently, moving quickly to lead the way, glad their pace was significantly slower than when they had been travelling towards the bounty point.

If Kankuro had moved Crow any later, he'd be dead. Kankuro leapt backwards to join Neji, yanking Crow back and putting it between them and the rogue shinobi. A second jumped through the small window, straightening up and looking at the two chuunin with what appeared to be some form of bloodlust.

"So, any particular reason why you didn't see these two?" Kankuro hissed at Neji, pulling his forehead protector back onto his head, tugging it over his ears.

"I was looking inside, not outside," Neji retorted, glancing at him angrily. "Any particular reason you can't watch your own back."

"Maybe because I thought you said that you'd be watching it." Kankuro told him, glaring at Neji before turning back to face the rogue shinobi.

Neji's mouth moved into a hard line as he activated his byakugan. Trapped inside he was at a disadvantage, as was Kankuro. Neji wouldn't be able to use his rotation technique and Kankuro would be fighting close combat, the exact type he'd wanted to avoid. Still, they had to make it work if they wanted to reach Tanzaku village in one piece.

"You two done arguing?" One of the two asked, swinging his katana. "We have a job to do."

"And what job would that be?" Kankuro asked, moving his fingers to ready Crow, for the moment, Black Ant would stay on his back, waiting for when he was needed.

"Finding that damn jinchuriki that a little thief took." The katana shinobi told him, smiling sadistically.

"Gaara." Kankuro muttered, moving his arm forwards and allowing Crow to attack. The shinobi facing Neji, a middle aged shinobi who looked like he wanted to be somewhere else lunged at Neji. Both the Katana shinobi and Neji leapt out of their attacker's way, wheeling round to face them once more.

Neji took a breath and calmed himself before beginning his gentle fist attack. The older shinobi simply smiled and leapt backwards, throwing kunai that Neji easily missed. Neji's hands kept missing their targets by a few centimetres each time and the older shinobi revealed himself to be a distance fighter, getting out of Neji's way and throwing weapons which Neji dodged. With Neji unable to attack his fight wasn't going to go particularly well unless he thought of something quickly.

Kankuro had similar difficulties, the shinobi he faced was evidently a close combat fighter and in the small arena he had, he was in his prime whereas it was all Kankuro could do to keep himself defended, backing himself up into a corner. Crow took all the attacks but couldn't land one as the rogue shinobi moved closer. He couldn't use his poison gas inside, he'd not only poison both rogue shinobi but himself and Neji too.

Kankuro ducked out of the way as the katana was aimed towards his head once more, causing the rogue shinobi to swerve and as he swung his katana, his opponent changed.

"Move, Kankuro!"

Kankuro obediently threw himself out of the way, diving towards the ground and rolling to his feet a few metres away.

_Eight trigrams: sixty-four palms_

Neji's attack was quick and he landed every hit, allowing Kankuro to pull Crow away from being chopped to pieces and chase Neji's opponent into a corner while the older shinobi was still wondering where his opponent went.

Dodging Crow, the older shinobi leapt back once more, right into Black Ant. He barely had time to react when it closed, and he was impaled by Crow's blades. Kankuro turned towards Neji to see how he was doing and blinked as he watched the Katana drop from the rogue shinobi's hand as he fell, blood dripping from his open mouth. Neji's gentle fist had worked perfectly against the rogue shinobi.

"Well, at least you had my back that time." Kankuro told him, releasing the dead shinobi from Black Ant and watching the body tumble to the ground.

"Well, someone had to." Neji muttered grouchily although Kankuro could see the good natured intent behind the remark.

"Well, we can't exactly ask these guys any questions, can we? Seeing as somebody killed them." Kankuro noted, kneeling down and looking inside the shinobi's pockets.

"Yeah, pity really." Neji confirmed, copying Kankuro as he searched through the pockets of the katana wielding shinobi. He was scanning outside with his byakugan now, having learnt his lesson quickly. His hand touched something metallic and he pulled it out. "Kankuro."

Kankuro looked round to Neji and his eyes widened slightly as he took in what Neji was holding up. "That looks like Gaara's forehead protector." He stood up and walked over, taking it from Neji soundlessly. He ran his thumb along the metal crest of the Sand village before putting the forehead protector into his pocket. Kankuro gathered his puppets, placing the two onto his back.

Neji stood up and walked towards the door, he pushed it open, noting again the thickness of the wall and door itself. _So that's why we didn't hear the dogs barking. _He thought to himself, glancing back to Kankuro before re-entering the sunshine.

"You two okay? We tried to warn you but-"

"Yeah, we're good." Neji confirmed, watching as Kankuro emerged from the building. He approached quickly, tightening his puppets on his back as he did so.

"I need you to confirm whether or not this is Gaara's." Kankuro asked, holding out the forehead protector. One of the dogs sniffed it and nodded.

"Yeah, it reeks of Gaara, definitely his."

Kankuro nodded silently, gripping the forehead protector so hard that his knuckles turned white.

_Don't worry Gaara, we're coming for you._

Neji noted the pale knuckles and gritted teeth silently for a moment before speaking. "We should get going; Temari will want to see the forehead protector."

Kankuro nodded, releasing his tight grip and placing the forehead protector into his pouch. "Alright, let's get going then."

Neji nodded, leaping up into the trees, heading east towards Tanzaku village. Kankuro and the dogs followed, each hoping that one of the other groups had brought good news.

_"Who?" _The shinobi taunted, watching as Lee moved closer.

"You know who I am talking about." Lee countered, raising his fists to fight. The rogue shinobi mirrored his pose perfectly and Lee narrowed his eyes. It appeared that this rogue shinobi was also proficient in taijutsu, although it would all boil down to their fight to see who would be victorious in the end.

The rogue shinobi made the first move, rushing towards Lee with speed that matched Lee's own. He attempted a multiple fist attack but Lee dodged, moving out of the way quickly. Lee leapt into the air as the rogue shinobi turned, spinning somersaults as he continued downwards. The rogue shinobi looked up only to get a heavy heel in his face. Blood spurted from the shinobi's nose and Lee landed gracefully, raising his arms for the next attack.

The rogue shinobi reeled back, clutching his nose and glaring at Lee, with the same speed as before he plucked a kunai from his pouch and threw it at Lee who dodged it but then found himself victim of a surprise attack as the rogue shinobi appeared at his left and swung a powerful roundhouse kick at him.

Lee was thrown backwards, landing on his back as he wheezed for breath, winded. Knowing he only had a second to recover he leapt up, throwing himself backwards and out of the way of the rogue shinobi's kunai, which landed in the ground where his head had been. Lee landed on his hands and leapt back onto his feet one more, taking up his position once more. The rogue shinobi grinned and took a step forwards, only to trip as his legs were suddenly immobile.

Matsuri gripped the end of her rope javelin tightly; glad she'd spent all that time training with Gaara to perfect her technique. The rogue shinobi's arms and legs were completely tangled within the rope and he wriggled to no avail. She allowed herself a small smile of victory towards Lee who gave her a thumbs up to congratulate a plan well carried out.

"Perhaps now you'll tell us about Ga-" Lee stopped as a puff of smoke replaced the rogue shinobi's body. "A shadow clone! We were fighting nothing but a shadow clone!"

"Maybe the shinobi is still here somewhere?" Matsuri asked, glancing round the clearing. It appeared empty but she was still cautious.

"No good you two, he's gone. He didn't have any trace of Gaara on him so I doubt we'd get anything useful from him." The two dogs emerged from the undergrowth, noses plastered to the ground as they sniffed around.

"So there is no point in following him?" Lee asked, looking upset that he'd only managed to catch a shadow clone.

"Not that I can see." Akio affirmed. The two dogs stopped sniffing their way around and one of them lay down and yawned. Matsuri's shoulders slumped and she began to reel her rope javelin in slowly, feeling downhearted that they hadn't managed to find any good information that could lead them to Gaara.

"Do not worry Matsuri, we will find Gaara, just you wait!" Lee announced to her, causing her to smile at his exuberant nature. The rope javelin continued to reel in but soon stopped at Matsuri bent to untangle the remaining length of it. Her hands worked deftly and smoothly, it was obvious she'd done it many times. After the rope lost its tangles she finished reeling it in, straightening up and looking around the clearing once more. The sun was beginning to lower itself from the top of the sky and she knew that, by this time tomorrow, she'd find out what everyone else had discovered about her sensei's whereabouts or even, whether they had managed to find him and had just forgotten to summon everyone else. There was one thing that she knew for certain, Gaara was going to be okay.

_AN: So, this is my first time writing fights, I hope I did okay. Some of them were shorter than others but considering who was fighting who, I thought that the lengths were appropriate. Yes, I know that Temari and Shikamaru's fight turned into me wanting them to be cute together but that was because I was writing this at around midnight, and I shouldn't be allowed to write after midnight. I hope I explained any plot holes from the last chapter, such as why Shikamaru thought the dogs had disappeared or why Neji didn't pick up the rogue shinobi with his byakugan. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and please follow, favourite and my personal favourite, review! _


	9. Chapter 9

The Hidden Sand seemed quieter without the three siblings raising some sort of hell. Baki almost missed it. There had been instances where teachers from the academy had complained that Kankuro had, once again, made Crow teach a lesson because he was too lazy to stand up. Temari had also been spotted allowing students to ride her fan as she dropped them off buildings, an activity that both she and her students venomously denied. Surprisingly, Gaara was the least likely to cause a ruckus. He was the quietest of the three and despite having the sand spirit within him, he was the one Baki would trust with the serious tasks. The other two would probably procrastinate the tasks away but Gaara would do them immediately and without argument, something Baki himself admired. He also showed a deep compassion for the village that, not so long ago, he had despised. Gaara was doing his best to fit in, he wanted to be accepted. Slowly and precariously, his dream of acceptance was nearing as the people began to acknowledge him as a person rather than a monster. He took their acceptance humbly and never expected more than he thought he deserved, although he deserved so much more.

_He would make a great Kazekage. _

The sudden thought shocked Baki. He hadn't even considered Gaara following in his father's footsteps. The more he thought of Gaara being head of the village, the more he began to like the idea. He doubted very many of the jounin council would agree with him but once Gaara became a jounin, he would recommend him immediately.

"Lord Baki." A chuunin level shinobi approached his desk with papers clutched in his hand. "I have the papers which Gaara collected in his last mission detailing a future invasion."

Baki glanced up. "Gaara has returned?"

The chuunin shifted. "No, they were in the satchels of his genin, they've been decoded."

Baki nodded and stretched out his hand for them. The chuunin placed them into the jounin's hand and turned to leave. "Wait; were they decoded by our ciphers?"

"No sir, they were already successfully decoded by the time we received them." The chuunin gave a slight bow of respect before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

"That's strange," Baki muttered to himself, picking the papers up to glance through them. "If they were serious plans to invade the Sand, then why were they easily decoded by genin?"

Baki couldn't help but praise Gaara silently for having the initiative to hide the papers with the genin as he scanned them quickly. Something didn't seem right about them. It had already been reported that there had been only four rogue shinobi in the old border post and something about that caused Baki to shift uneasily.

There was something else that bothered Baki; the rogue shinobi had known where to find Gaara. They had acted quickly and since Gaara was missing, had taken Gaara by surprise. That couldn't have been random. If the four rogue shinobi at the border post and the ones who had taken Gaara were connected, then it had been a set up from the start. Even the plans seemed ridiculous, taking of near impossible plans. Gaara wouldn't have known the difference. He would have taken the plans as truth and wanted to bring them back as fast as possible.

_But how did the rogue shinobi know the Sand would send Gaara?_

The answer came to him quickly. There was a traitor in the Sand. Baki clenched his hands into fists and gritted his teeth. This wouldn't be the first time that Gaara had been targeted on a mission by his own village. They had been lucky the last time that the Leaf had been backing Gaara and his two genin up, meaning that no one had gotten seriously injured. Gaara hadn't taken much offence at the attempt either, brushing it off silently. A traitor in the sand would explain why it had been decided that Gaara would be in charge of a genin team with limited experience, someone had wanted to ensure that Gaara was caught easily and they didn't want other, powerful shinobi who cared for Gaara, like Kankuro or Temari, to be able to fight back.

It had been a sham from the start and now Gaara could be in serious danger. Baki hit the desk with his fist, causing a loud bang to echo through the room. He sat still for a moment, contemplating what to do before grabbing a pen and writing quickly. Kakashi was head of the Leaf squad being sent out to find Gaara and Baki knew that he'd react better than Kankuro or Temari if they found out what Baki was now certain of. Baki would have to trust Kakashi to let them know gently, so that none of them would do something stupid. Although at the sight of Temari as she left the Sand, Baki doubted the oldest sibling's adherence to the shinobi law of keeping emotion in check.

Baki finished his message and stood up; normally he'd catch a passing genin to send the message for him but not this time. He couldn't risk anyone finding out what he knew and sending someone after the Gaara rescue team.

The corridor was empty as he headed to the aviary, leaving Baki with no distractions or hindrances. The letter was rolled up tightly in his hand, hidden from outside view. As he entered the aviary the chuunin on duty jolted up.

"Lord Baki, it's strange that you would come here yourself." The chuunin commented. Baki simply nodded and selected the bird he was looking for. "What message are you sending?"

Baki glanced at the chuunin. In any other circumstance the chuunin's question would be one of curiosity but now he wasn't so sure. "It's a letter to Temari, asking how the search is going."

The chuunin nodded understandingly, allowing Baki to attach his message to the bird and lifted it towards the entrance of the aviary. The bird took off silently, leaving Baki to watch it go and hope it arrived safely. His own investigation about Gaara's disappearance would soon start. He needed to find out if he was over reacting, or if the Sand really was harbouring a traitor.

Gaara hadn't expected the jutsu to hurt so much. As the two were sucked from one place to another Gaara thought his skin was going to tear from his bones. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath and shaking violently. He placed a hand on the grass to steady himself and moved the other over his heart, feeling it beating with such a speed he thought it might burst.

There was a shift in the air and the grass in front of him rustled. Sandaled feet came into view and he felt hands on his shoulders.

"Just keep breathing kid, it'll pass." Tsubaki's voice was soft, soothing Gaara's erratic breathing until his heartbeat began to steady. Noting his body relaxing slightly Tsubaki continued. "I didn't realise how weak you still were, we should've stayed another night."

"No, I…I'm fine" Gaara told her, sinking back to sit on the ground. His breathing was still heavy and his head spun but he no longer felt like death was closing in on him. He looked up at Tsubaki. She crouched in front of him, hands now resting on her lap, looking at him with the same concern as the previous night. "Really, I-"

She let out a poorly hidden laugh, sounding like a heavy breath of air. Her smile was what gave it away though, her eyes creased at the edges and she closed her eyes. "Stop lying Gaara, we'll be spending two nights in the next village. Whether you like it or not."

Gaara opened his mouth to protest and insist he was fine but she stood up and he lost his chance. Instead he glanced around, they were in a clearing of sorts, much like the one they had came from. "Where-?"

"Near Tanzaku village in the Land of Fire." She told him, picking up what he assumed was a tag and putting it into her pouch. She turned and reached out a hand to him. He took it gratefully and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet; he swayed for a few seconds before finding his balance. Once balanced he found he couldn't quite move, instead he stumbled every time he took a step. Tsubaki glanced back at him, her eyes softening as she pulled his arm over his shoulders and took some of his weight.

Immediately the world stopped shifting and with her help Gaara was walking once more. They exited the clearing and within a few minutes came to a well walked path. Without any hesitation Tsubaki turned right and followed the path that way, walking at such a speed that Gaara was comfortable.

"I wanted to ask," Gaara mumbled, barely loud enough for Tsubaki to hear. Her gaze flickered down to him for a second before focusing on the path ahead once more. "Why did you save me?"

His companion stayed quiet, the silence stretching on for a few minutes before she sighed sadly. Gaara looked over at her in expectation. Her eyes were fixed forwards and her gaze didn't waver from that point. "You reminded me of someone I lost."

"Someone you lost?" Gaara asked, continuing to watch her for a few seconds more before shifting his focus forwards.

"My son."

Gaara stopped walking, forcing Tsubaki to a stop too. "Your son," Tsubaki didn't look like she was old enough to have a shinobi son but then again it was possible that she, like the Leaf's Hokage, used some sort of jutsu to make herself look younger. "How old was he?"

"Three months." Her replies stayed blunt and Gaara could tell she didn't like talking about him.

"But then how-?"

"His hair was the same colour as yours, for a second I thought," She paused, looking to the ground. "I thought he'd survived and grown up."

"How old would he be now?" Gaara asked, he knew that he was probably being inconsiderate but it was the first time he'd found out anything about her.

"Five."

So it wasn't some sort of age disguising jutsu, she really was young. Tsubaki took a step forwards and Gaara followed, he wasn't sure of how to continue, he wanted to know more but she seemed upset and he didn't want to push her.

"My husband was killed at the same time." she told Gaara, eyes back on the horizon, feet hitting the ground softly as they made their way towards Tanzaku village.

"Can I ask how?"

Tsubaki sighed softly again. "I was returning from a successful mission when it happened. My team tried to get me to go to hospital to treat my injuries but my husband was a medical ninja so I refused. By the time I got there they were dead. I know who killed them but I can't act yet. I faked my death and left my village a few days after."

"So you're alone…" Gaara trailed off, he knew what it was like to be alone. "What village were yo-"

Tsubaki stopped suddenly and placed a hand over Gaara's mouth, cutting him off mid-sentence. She dragged him quickly into the forest, pulling him behind a bush and looking through the leaves silently. Her head was turned away from Gaara but by how tensely she was holding him, he doubted what was happening was good. Gaara was about to ask Tsubaki what she had heard when he caught wind of it too. Voices approached; loud voices. His eyes widened as he glanced at Tsubaki, she'd known they were coming before their sound had even carried to the two of them. Gaara recognised the voice. The loudest, angriest voice belonged to the scarred man in the desert, the one who had attempted to kill him. Tsubaki lifted her hand from Gaara's mouth and with both speed and accuracy wove a long series of hand signs that in his current state, Gaara couldn't follow.

"When I get my hands on that bounty I'm going to skin him then tear each of his joints off one by one." The scarred shinobi's voice was becoming clear as the group approached.

"But boss, he's with Kakashi Hatake isn't he? He's no pushov-."

"He's not with Kakashi Hatake, you idiot." Scar spat, sounding angrier and angrier as they approached. "The thief used a transformation jutsu while fighting so we'd think it was the copy ninja. Why exactly would the copy ninja be wandering around the desert alone?"

"Then who's he-"

"Shut up!" Scar roared, Gaara jumped and Tsubaki narrowed her eyes, watching as the three ninja approached. "If I knew that then they'd be dead!"

"Who do you think it was, boss? Some ANBU from another village?" One of the henchmen asked, looking worried for his safety.

"If it was someone from another village then they wouldn't have used the transformation jutsu." The other henchman commented. "My guess is that it's a rogue shinobi, maybe one who was previously associated with the Leaf in some way."

Gaara glanced at Tsubaki, watching as her eyes narrowed and her mouth moved into a hard line. He wanted to move into a more comfortable position but the three rogue shinobi were in close proximity now and any move he made would give away their position. He wondered briefly why they weren't fighting, although after a few seconds the answer came to him. Gaara himself could barely walk, let alone fight and Tsubaki- well, she probably had her reasons.

"A rogue Leaf shinobi, eh? Wouldn't surprise me. More have gone rogue from that village alone Orochimaru, Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha to name a few." Scar mused, his voice calmer now.

Gaara looked to Tsubaki for a reaction but her face stayed neutral, either she wasn't actually from the Leaf village or she was very good at concealing emotion.

"I hear the Sand and Leaf have created a search party for the jinchuriki, consisting of three Sand shinobi and four Leaf, I think Kakashi Hatake may be among them." His henchman told him, glancing around the forest.

"Oh really, looks like we'll have to find our bounty quickly then." Scar stopped walking, turning his head towards the bush Gaara and Tsubaki hid behind. Gaara felt his heart rate increase as he approached. His footsteps drew near and Gaara could see Tsubaki's eyes narrowing once more, her hand moving silently to her pouch. Scar towered over the bush, looking over it and around it for a few moments before turning away.

Tsubaki removed her hand from her pouch and Gaara saw her let out a silent sigh of relief. Somehow, Scar hadn't seen them. Gaara thought back to the series of hand movements from Tsubaki as the men had approached.

_Genjutsu_

The three rogue shinobi moved away, their conversation carried away by the wind. The two shinobi who remained kept silent for a few minutes after the last wisp of conversation left their ears. Tsubaki was the first to move, slumping against the bush and breathing heavily. Gaara's heart was beating fast, reminding him of how it had felt after the teleportation jutsu.

"You okay?" Tsubaki's voice was soft, quieter than normal, as if she feared the rogue shinobi would hear her.

"Yes." As he spoke Gaara noticed how quiet his own voice was.

"Good. Let's go." Tsubaki stretched out a hand and hauled Gaara up, manoeuvring herself to support his weight. He nodded in gratitude and stretched a hand towards his gourd. There was something missing and his fingers met air, stretching for his forehead protector. Tsubaki glanced at his stricken face. "What is it?"

"My forehead protector, it's gone." Gaara muttered, his shoulders sagging.

"I'm not going back to find it if that's what you want." Tsubaki told him. They were back on the path now, moving at a slow pace to accommodate Gaara's weakness.

"No, it just feels strange without it." Gaara told her, removing his hand from the place which until recently held his forehead protector, the symbol of his home.

"I know what you mean." The words appeared to slip out without Tsubaki realising and she quickly focused her attention forwards again.

"Do you miss your home, Tsubaki?" Gaara asked, knowing that, although he'd only been away a few days from his own home, he missed it terribly. From what he could piece together, Tsubaki had left her village five years ago and yet he had seen her reach to tighten her own forehead protector around her fully bandaged arm only hours ago.

"Sometimes there aren't any words to describe what you feel. Your heart can feel them but your head simply can't understand what it's trying to say. I feel that way about many things, my village being one of them."

"I see. You're alone, like I was." Gaara commented quietly.

"I chose to be alone, I highly doubt you did."

Gaara struggled to find a response and settled for silence as Tanzaku village became their primary focus.

By the time they reached Tanzaku it was growing dark and Gaara was past the state of exhaustion. His feet dragged along the ground and all he wanted to do was sleep. Tsubaki didn't appear to have any sign of fatigue, despite having carried half his weight the entire journey. Due to the time of the evening the town was buzzing with activity. Gamblers moved from casino to casino, hoping that one of them may hold luck that the last one didn't. Merchants shouted their wares, claiming authenticity on every jewel, artefact and hoax they had, drawing costumers in. Hot food was being bought by the bucket full from vendors, exchanging cheap and cheerful food for cash.

Tsubaki manoeuvred the two of them through the crow effortlessly, scanning the crowd as she went. She kept them out of the way of the drunks and the desperate her eyes flicking through the crowd the entire time. She had the vigilant eyes of a seasoned jounin and Gaara allowed himself to be led towards a quieter part of the town, towards the inns and hotels which although crowded, were nothing compared to the gambling region.

The two of them ended up at the door of a nicely sized inn, small enough to fit neatly between two big hotels but big enough to warrant some popularity. Tsubaki pushed it open and Gaara stumbled through it with her.

"He a little drunk is he?" An elderly lady called from behind the reception desk.

Tsubaki laughed, sounding light hearted and a little tipsy herself. "You know the youths these days, they think once they get a hold of a drink they have to finish it immediately."

"How many rooms dear? Just the one? For you and your-?"

"Brother." Tsubaki told her, keeping her voice light and her appearance bright, as if the two really had come from the casinos. "One will be fine."

"Ah, that's good, we only have one left. It's overlooking the street, can be a bit noisy but you'll sleep through it if you're tired. Any luck on the slots?" The elderly lady handed over a key as Tsubaki placed her money on the counter.

"Tomorrow, I'll have good luck tomorrow." Tsubaki smiled and took the key, turning from the desk and heading to the stairs.

"I have no doubt!" The old lady called after her, chuckling quietly at the pair.

"You told her I was drunk." Gaara accused quietly as Tsubaki glanced round for their room.

"You look drunk; deal with it." Tsubaki retorted. She located the room and pushed the key into the door, opening it quietly. She glanced at all corners of the room before pulling Gaara in with her and allowing him to slide down the wall in exhaustion.

Tsubaki checked the closet and the bathroom before allowing herself to be satisfied. "I'm going to get us some hot food at one of the vendor's. You should lie down on one of the beds and just eat there. I'm sure the innkeeper won't mind."

Gaara nodded, "Alright."

With a single worried glance Tsubaki left the room, taking the key with her. Gaara could hear her padding down the corridor for a few seconds before the sound faded. He allowed himself to relax, looking round the room himself. It was plain and simple, with two futons and a small table to eat at. Tatami mats covered the floor, looking worn but sturdy. Gaara removed his gourd from his back and once its weight had disappeared he found that it was easier to stand. He reached the small table and sat, crossing his legs. Yawning, he laid his head on the surface of the table, feeling incredibly sleepy.

"Fall asleep like that and your neck is going to ache in the morning." A soft voice scolded from the doorway. Gaara jolted up, wide awake as shock coursed through him, he turned, ready for an attack but Tsubaki simply raised her eyebrows at his clumsy movements, holding two steaming bowls of something that smelt good.

"That was quick." Gaara commented, launching into his food as soon as she set it in front of him. It was ramen and it tasted good, especially to his hungry stomach.

Tsubaki snorted softly. "I've been gone about forty five minutes; you must have fallen asleep on the table."

Gaara blinked, glancing out the window, it was almost completely dark outside, much darker than it had been when they arrived. "This must have cost you a lot; I'll pay you back once I return home."

"Don't worry about it; you'll forget you owe me anything soon enough." Tsubaki brushed his offer away as she picked up her chopsticks and dug in.

Gaara looked down at his bowl, finishing its contents quickly. "Where did you get the money from to pay for all of this?"

"You're talkative today." Tsubaki commented, taking a bite of her ramen. "I take jobs from wealthy families and Lords who want a job done but don't want to involve shinobi nations."

"Jobs like?" Gaara prodded, hoping to get more out of her.

"Assassination." Tsubaki lifted some meat from her bowl, popping it into her mouth and chewing it thoughtfully. Gaara felt his eyes widen slightly, he knew of ninja like that. Shinobi like Zabuza Momichi who worked only for money. Tsubaki noted Gaara's change in posture. "Don't worry, firstly I only take down rogue ninja who are active threats and secondly, you're not one of them."

She smiled warmly at him, finishing her bowl and lifting his. They both ended up in the bin along with the disposable chopsticks that she had picked up.

"Who is your target now?" Gaara asked as she turned back towards him.

Tsubaki walked across the room and pulled the window shutters closed. "I have my sights set on a group, an organisation of rogue shinobi," She watched as Gaara moved over towards a futon, removing her katana harness and holding it in her right hand. "Called the Akatsuki."

"I haven't heard of them." Gaara told her, lying down. He felt full and relaxed once more and it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. Tsubaki extinguished the light and Gaara heard her lying down at the other side of the room. She muttered something that Gaara couldn't quite make out.

_I hope you never do._

_AN: Thanks for reading, and for all the new follows I got! Please review and favourite! Everything is beginning to come together, my pieces are all heading towards the centre of the board and ready for what's coming._


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